


Invitation

by starstruck1986



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Cross-Generation Relationship, HP: EWE, Hogwarts Eighth Year, M/M, Vampire Severus Snape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-19
Updated: 2016-11-19
Packaged: 2018-08-31 21:16:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 122,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8594113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starstruck1986/pseuds/starstruck1986
Summary: Confined in the physical walls of Hogwarts, Ron should know better than to issue an invitation whilst drunk...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was written way back in 2009, originally posted at Adultfanfiction.net.
> 
> This is rough and unedited, back then I hated using a beta even more than I hate using one now *blush* So please forgive, and remember that I was younger, my writing was rougher, and...well. Yeah.
> 
> Warnings: Vampirism, Hogwarts 8th Year, language, cross gen

“Oh, shit!”

“Thank you for that remarkably astute assessment of our predicament, Weasley.”

 

The voice was acid in delivery and icy in tone. If Ron had been sober, maybe it would have bothered him. But, blissfully, Ronald Weasley was not sober and as such he couldn’t help his derisive snort at the rebuke.

 

“Well, Sir, can you think of anything better?”

“It’d be futile anyway. Just be aware, Weasley, when we get out of this, I’m having you thrown out on your backside for being inebriated, out of bounds and then trying to smash your way through the school’s defences on your attempt to return.”

“You can try,” Ron shrugged. “But if you haven’t noticed, Snape, I kinda tend to get away with a lot around here… helps when you’ve got a friend like Harry.”

 

Snape visibly bristled at both the impertinence and the mention of Harry Potter.

 

“Potter won’t save you from this,” Snape looked at the redhead. “You should probably say your goodbyes to the castle now, you know, whilst we’re imprisoned within its walls.”  
“So is that where we are then?”

“Good God, you’re stupider than I thought. Do you know nothing of the school you’ve lived in for the past seven years?”

 

Ron let his head loll onto his shoulder as he sent an exasperated look at his Professor. Blue eyes met black and Snape knew that Ron was sparing himself the energy of answering in the negative. With a bored sigh through his nose, Snape leaned back against the wall.

  
“The founders thought it would be amusing, not to mention incredibly helpful, to place wards that recognised current students on the castle gates. To trap truants, generally. When the curfew for the castle is invoked, the enchantment activates. And any student attempting to get back in after that, at least through the front entrance, is trapped here to ensure punishment for their rulebreaking.”

“So, does someone know we’re here?”

“They know _you’re_ here.”

“Well, how long before they come and let us out, then?” Ron lazily stretched his arms above his head, his genial speech aided by the considerable amount of Ogden’s he’d consumed with his visiting brothers in The Three Broomstick.

 

“That depends on if the wards picked up on my presence or not.”  
“What difference does that make?”

“All the difference,” Snape’s mouth twisted in what could have been a smirk of amusement, or a scowl.

“Care to tell me what that might be?” Ron quirked his eyebrows and gave a half-smile.

“If they picked up on me as I tried to instruct you not to touch the gate, Weasley and then got pulled through with you, then we will be here until we are missed.”

“Why?” Ron’s brain wasn’t working particularly fast. _Was it ten glasses or eleven? Bollocks._

“Because,” Snape’s voice dripped with disdain and Ron thought how silky it sounded, so low and baritone, “It would fool the wards into thinking a teacher had already freed you from the walls.”

“Oh.”

“Quite.”

“So… we’re stuck here until we’re missed then. How long do teachers usually take?”

“Well, think of me, Weasley. Do you think I’d haul myself out of bed to come and release a miscreant like yourself?”

“Well, let’s be frank, if I were relying on _you_ and you alone to get me out of this mess they’d be removing me cold under a blanket, wouldn’t they?”

 

“That’s the most intelligent assessment you’ve made since we got shoved in here, Weasley.”  
“Well, it does happen sometimes,” Ron laughed, shivering slightly in the cool air of the chamber.

 

Ron wondered why he was still standing up, it seemed silly to do so now he knew release was apparently far from imminent. He dropped into a corner and leant back on the wall, his legs bent up in front of him, feet flat on the floor. Snape stayed standing, his form tall and thin, all dressed in black, leaning against the wall.

 

“So what were you doing out so late, anyway?” Ron swallowed.

“That’s none of your business,” Snape answered him with a glare.  
“Well, I’m just trying to make conversation,” Ron shrugged. “And you can’t really blame me for this… you were the one that grabbed me.”  
“If you’d heeded my advice and refrained from touching the gate, I wouldn’t have had to.”

 

“So why did you grab me?” Ron frowned. “I’d just have come here alone and you could have left me and gone to bed.”

“Because you are clearly out of your head, I can smell your hundred percent proof breath from over here. The wards record occurrences. Had you come here by yourself and then choked on your own vomit and died, I would have been held accountable.”

“And me being dead wouldn’t have been enough of a victory to override the angry parents?” Ron snorted.

“Whatever impression you have of me, Weasley, celebrating the death of my students isn’t generally one of my preferred pastimes.”

“Could have fooled me,” Ron gave a roll of his eyes and fell quiet, looking at the wall opposite.

 

The only sound for the next ten minutes was Snape arranging himself on the floor of the small chamber, and Ron found himself jealous of the man’s thick cloak and wizarding robes. He was only wearing a light jacket and a t-shirt with his jeans, and apparently stuck within the thick stone walls of the castle, they weren’t enough to stop a chill setting in his bones.

 

“Do shut up,” Snape growled at him, when the chattering of his teeth became noticeable.

“It’s cold in here,” Ron made a valiant effort to control his trembling jaw, but failed.

“Well, there’s a block on magic in these rooms, so you’ll be staying cold.”  
“I kind of figured that, you know… otherwise I would have just pulled out my wand and drummed up my Patronus to go and jump on Harry’s head and have him get me the hell out of here.”

 

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Snape snapped. “I’d be worried about the apparently thinning talent required to perform complex magic if someone like you could produce a Patronus.”

“Ouch,” Ron glared at him. “You’re a bastard.”  
“I’m what?” Snape’s voice rose with sudden volume and his face became a carving of stone with scary, glaring eyes.

“You’re a bastard,” Ron repeated, staring at him evenly. “There’s no need to be so rude.”

“Well, considering what you’ve just called me, one could say the same to you. I will be deducting points in the morning.”

 

“Swearing at someone is a far cry from insinuating that they’re thick. That actually hurts, you know, when you do that?”

“So are you telling me, Weasley, that you can in fact produce a Patronus?” Snape hooked an eyebrow up disbelievingly.

“Yep,” Ron grinned. “A little Jack Russell Terrier, I named him Archie… Harry thinks that’s conceited, naming your own Patronus. But it suited him.”

 

Snape was looking at him in a way Ron couldn’t quite place, so he fell silent and waited for the raven haired man to speak again.

 

“Interesting.”  
“Wow, from you, that’s almost a compliment.”  
“Don’t get used to it.”  
“I’m drunk, not retarded.”

 

Ron looked up and silently dared Snape with his eyes to contradict him otherwise. Snape merely looked boredly away and considered the wall Ron sat against for a further five minutes.

The cold in Ron’s body seemed to step up a notch and he drew his legs into his body and hooked his arms around them, savouring the extra warmth it gave him, before it levelled to normal again.

 

“Is there any chance of you shutting up?” Snape asked, closing his eyes as the sound of Ron’s chattering teeth drove him one step closer to the precipice above a chasm of insanity.

“I-I c-c-can’t h-help it,” Ron felt tired from the way his limbs were shaking.

 

There was a sound of whooshing and Ron found himself hit by a heavy dark object. Ron grabbed it and realised it was the cloak which had, up until seconds before, been wrapped around the Potions Master. Looking over, Ron made questioning eyes.

 

“Just be quiet,” Snape folded his arms over his chest and extended his legs out in front of him. The chamber was so small and he so tall that his feet connected with the opposite wall.

“You’ve got really long legs,” Ron commented without thinking, as he settled himself under the cloak, savouring the warmth and the surprisingly sweet smell.

 

“This just gets better,” Snape rolled his eyes. “Drunk, frozen, and flirting with your Professor. Weasley, do you actually think before you open your mouth?”  
“I’m not flirting,” Ron laughed, and the rich sound bounced around the chamber walls.

“No, that’s right, I’m sure the gene bypassed you,” Snape sneered.

“Ouch, again with the insults. Tell me, can you hold a conversation without managing to make the other person feel like a complete and utter twat?”

“Language.”  
“Fuck off.”

 

“Weasley, I’m warning you!”

“With what?” Ron snorted. “Your fists? I’m as tall as you are, and as strong by the looks of it. Try me. I fight better when I’m drunk anyway.”

 

Snape smiled then, something which Ron found incredibly disturbing and enthralling at the same time. Snape _never_ smiled.

 

“What?” Ron asked, unnerved by the simple action.

“You think my fists would be the only way I could overpower you, I find that amusing.”

“You said it yourself, magic’s blocked in here,” Ron frowned. “Unless you just meant student magic… but then you’d be in bed by now.”

 

Snape looked at him then, eyes calculating over the pale, freckled face, messy red hair and blue eyes.

 

“You asked me what I was doing out of the castle so late at night,” Snape said curtly. “I tell you this because I will Obliviate you the second we get out of this room.”

“Oh, this should be good,” Ron grinned. “Come on then. Spill whatever it is you want to spill.”

“Think of what might have me out in the night time,” Snape wanted to draw it out for as long as it would take Ron to cotton on.

“An aversion to sunlight,” Ron immediately laughed, looking doubtful.

 

“Not as thick as I once thought, Weasley, I give you credit.”

“Hang on a second,” Ron frowned. “What on earth does that…”

“Ever thought,” Snape’s voice lowered to an enticing drawl. “Ever thought that the insult you see as a joke might actually be the truth?”

“Oh please, there’s no way you’re a bloody vampire,” Ron dismissed, thinking on all the times he had ever called Snape an old bat behind his back.

“Oh?” Snape cocked his head.

“Dumbledore would never let you teach, and anyway, for God’s sake, you go out in the day at school!”

“If you actually paid attention in your DADA lessons, maybe you’d know that there are ways for my kind to get around that,” Snape nonchalantly brushed some dust off his trousers.

 

Ron stared at him evenly. “So what, when you found me you were… hunting?”

“Well, I suppose you could call it that. I prefer the word feeding, considering it’s essential for my survival.”

“Are you trying to scare me?” Ron laughed. “Because it’s not working.”

“It’s not working because you don’t believe me yet,” Snape smiled again.

“I don’t, but even if I did, I wouldn’t be scared,” Ron shrugged. “So what? You’re a vampire. You’re the one that’s sitting here, in that case, hearing my blood pump through my veins… smelling my skin… you’re the one having the hard time here.”

“And you, if I attacked?”

 

Another drunken laugh. “Come on, Snape, please. So what? You kill me, I’m dead, and what the hell am I going to know about it? You turn me? You have to deal with me for the rest of our lives. You drink from me? I’ll forget it when you Obliviate me in the morning.”

 

Snape blinked, taken aback by the drunken yet frank assessment of their situation. He had never associated much gumption to Ronald Weasley but, even though the lanky redhead in front of him was clearly speaking through the effects of alcohol, it was suddenly laid bare in the lean form.

 

“So. What was the point of revealing that to me? Is that your oh-so-subtle Snapey way of telling me you’re hungry?”

“No, I’m not,” Snape told him. “Keep mentioning it and I will be though.”

“Have what you want,” Ron snorted, flinging a wrist haphazardly out of the cloak, his eyes on Snape, seeing the way the dark onyx pools followed the thin arm with the large hand attached, and an obvious amount of wrist sticking out of the end of the sleeve.

 

“Can’t imagine I’d taste very good, anyway,” Ron shrugged. “Not to you.”

“When you’re a damned creature, you take whatever life chooses to pass your way,” Snape said, in a voice softer than he had intended. “But, there are parts of vampire reality that aren’t taught to you in the curriculum. If you knew them, you’d think differently about flinging your wrist about like that.”

“Oh, do tell,” Ron turned towards him, now warm under the thick cloak and feeling much more at ease.

 

“Weasley, let me assure you, you’d feel less inclined to turn to me so easily if I told you. It is best for now if you stay ignorant.” The sharp tone was back in Snape’s voice and Ron gave an inward sigh.

“Fine, whatever,” Ron shrugged. “Look, if you don’t want to talk to me, I’m going to sleep.”

 

Ron moved to arrange himself on the floor, but in the small space that took either his feet or his head closer to Severus Snape than he would ever have wanted, even before the whole ‘am-I-Vampire-or-am-I-not?’ spiel. Snape watched him with impassive eyes.

 

“Fine, maybe I’m not going to sleep,” Ron groaned. “Tell me what else I don’t know about Vampires feeding.”

“When a Vampire feeds, if they are doing so without the intent to kill or turn –and that is crucial, because it is wholly much more painful and disturbing with such intent, the process is somewhat erotic, for both parties. You _do_ know what erotic means?”

“You mean like foreign beaches and stuff?” Ron frowned.

“No, you imbecile, I mean you’ll get turned on, hard and you’ll probably beg for more than you know you want.”

 

Ron couldn’t help the way his smirk blossomed onto his lips. “Oh dear, and you call _me_ an imbecile. Just wanted to hear you explain it in more detail, Snape, of course I know what erotic means… I’m a fucking teenager.”

 

“Oh, very clever,” Snape rolled his eyes, but Ron could tell he was annoyed.

“So, you’re saying that if you come over here and bite my neck, I’ll get a hard-on and beg you for…”

“Sex, generally.”

“Wow. No wonder they don’t put that on the syllabus, huh?”

“Well, quite.”  
“And do you tend to give your victims what they ask you for?”

 

“That depends,” Snape geared himself up for an admittance he’d never made before.

“On what?” Ron’s eyebrows rose.

“On whether I find them sexually appealing or not.”

“Well then what’s your issue?” Ron frowned, and held up his wrist. “Take what you want and I’ll sort myself out afterwards, if you’re hungry.”

“Why do you automatically assume that would be my opinion?”

 

“Because,” Ron’s eyes fell to the dusty ground of the chamber. “I’m me. Ginger, lanky, freckles everywhere… guess you didn’t need to know that part,” he flushed. “Nobody in their right mind would be attracted to me. Especially not you. Namely because you’re a bloke.”

“I was wondering when the happy aura would wear off from your drunken pursuits,” Snape commented. “Are you a depressive drunk? That would be awfully monotonous considering we’ll be here for hours yet.”

“You’ve not answered my question,” Ron ignored him.

 

“And you’ve not answered several of mine, Weasley, I thought Gryffindors revelled in a sense of equality?” Snape’s voice held a barely concealed jeer.

“I’m generally a drunk that gets happy, sings loudly, and falls asleep. It’s normally taken its course by now… so…”

“You wouldn’t know,” Snape finished for him softly.

 

Ron nodded. “Your turn.”

“Why do you want me to answer? Are you saying you’d like me to drink from you?”

“No, I’m just curious.”

“Are you sure?”

“Sure of what?”

 

There was an impatient tut and suddenly Ron found himself in the shadow of his Potions Master crouching down beside him, and one hand had closed around his wrist. Defiantly, Ron swallowed and looked up at him –he refused to be intimidated in such a way.

 

“Sure that you could handle the answers I give you?”

“What does it matter?” Ron shrugged. “As you said… I’m not going to remember it come the morning.”

“No,” Snape admitted, and gracefully settled down next to the redhead. “But I will.”

“What does that mean?” Ron’s eyes narrowed.

“If I liked what I tasted… what I felt… my very nature would compel me to seek you out again… so whilst you can forget, Weasley, I would be forced to fight my natural urges to let you be. Normally, that’s never an issue –I would never prey on a student and my other donors-”

“Not victims, then?” Ron interrupted.  
“Nobody dies, nobody protests when you get into it...”

“That’s some sort of rape, surely?”

 

Snape answered him with a sigh. “See, Weasley. You couldn’t handle the truth.”

 

They fell quiet again and sat side by side, staring at the wall opposite.

“Doesn’t it drive you mad, being around human blood all the time?” Ron quipped suddenly.

“I’m used to it, now, working here.”

“And you’ve never been tempted to…”

“To what?” Snape raised an eyebrow.  
“Feed off the student body?” Ron laughed.

“No,” Snape shrugged. “Contrary to popular belief, I do have a conscience Weasley.”  
“I never said you didn’t,” Ron’s voice was gentler as he spoke. “So how long have you been…”

“A while.”

“Want to divulge any more than that?”

“No.”

 

“This is the weirdest night I’ve spent drunk since Seamus accidentally turned himself into a yak and trashed our dorm,” Ron snorted.

 

Silence permeated the chamber and Ron shot a sneaky glance sideways and realised that Snape had his eyes closed, leaning back against the wall. His face was pale, washed with the flickering light of the few candles which had lit when they’d been thrust into the chamber by the magic.

  
“Stop staring at me, Weasley.”

“How did you know I was staring at you?”

“Vampire senses.”

“Oh. What else can you do?”

“Nothing that impressive. Drinking blood, over-alert senses, aversion to sunlight, slightly quicker reflexes. That’s about it.”

“And being immortal,” Ron said casually.

“We don’t tend to mention that one as it’s the biggest thorn on the rose, so to speak.”  


Ron didn’t speak and considered Snape’s words. He assumed it was the alcohol, but he had the strangest compunction to reach out and touch the man – _vampire, Ron, remember that-_ next to him.

 

“How do you teach? I know you live in the dungeons but you come to meals in the Great Hall, I’ve seen you at Quidditch.”

“Being a Potions Master has its benefits. There are ways I can protect myself against the sun and the hypnotic sleep it should send me into.”  
“So it makes you sleepy?”

“Yes.”

“How do you survive then? Surely you should sleep during the day and be out at night, but if you’re awake during the day and you’re awake now…”

“I don’t get a lot of sleep,” Snape confirmed for him, lips tightly drawn together.

“That must suck.”

“It does more than that,” Snape opened one eye warily. “But then so much else of me sucks I don’t see why that element should be any different.”

 

Ron’s laughter hit the walls of the chamber and Snape looked at him. “Sorry, your sense of sarcasm is fairly amusing when it’s not directed at me,” Ron shrugged.

 

Silence descended on them yet again and another look showed Ron that his Professor had re-closed his eyes. Ron didn’t care if he was going to get rebuked for staring, he just couldn’t deny the way his eyes were glued to the man’s face.

 

“Weasley, what do you want?” the growl cut through the silence.

 

 _So fucking what? I’m not going to remember this. He can deal with it in the morning._ Ron’s selfish side kicked through his carefully constructed walls as he spoke, “I want you to feed from me.”

 

Snape’s eyes were open in a second. “You don’t mean that. And thank you, by the way, for your careful consideration for my own peace of mind.”

“I mean it,” Ron raised his chin, looking the older man straight in the eye. “I…” he thought back on those DADA lessons and searched for the one piece of information he needed. “Invite you… to feed on me.”

 

There was a sharp intake of breath at those words and Ron was startled to see that there had been enough colour in Snape’s pale face to drain out of his skin. Now borderline ghostly, the dark eyes set in the whitewash seemed to penetrate through Ron’s own flesh.

 

“You know I can’t refuse that invitation,” there was a hint of something that might have been desperation in Snape’s voice. “You don’t know what you’ve done!”

“I invited you to feed on me,” Ron said. “Not kill me.”

“The invitation makes this need stronger,” Ron watched as his professor let his face fall into his hands. “You really are a stupid fucking idiot.”

 

The blunt swear words hit Ron like a bat in the face.

 

“Am I really that repulsive?”

“No!” Snape was suddenly on his feet, faster than Ron could have anticipated, before his drunken brain remembered what Snape had told him about faster reflexes.

“Then just do it,” Ron looked up at him in wonderment.

“But that’s just it. You’ve just issued an invitation. Not, ‘feed from me now and only now’… that was an open ended invitation and if I bow to the temptation, you will probably get three days of grace before I’m pulling you into a broom cupboard and molesting your throat.”

 

Ron couldn’t help his shiver. But it wasn’t entirely a shiver of fear.

 

“Well, can you fight the temptation?” Ron asked him.

“I need to get out of here to do so, Weasley.”

“Then don’t bother.”

 

Unknowing of what mad, insane force was driving him, Ron got to his feet and stepped close to the man who looked thoroughly torn.

“You aren’t even this way inclined,” Snape whispered.  
“And you are?”

“I’m indifferent.”  
“Nice way of putting it. Maybe I’m indifferent too?”

“I’d hardly be your first choice.”

“As I’d hardly be yours.”

“Stop turning everything I say back to me,” Snape gave a twitch of his head.

“Stop fighting what can’t be changed,” the brazenness fell out of him and Ron reached out and brushed the back of his knuckles across the older man’s – _vampire, dammit, Ron!-_ cheekbone.

 

As if that action released the water behind the dam of restraint, Ron found himself pressed backwards into the wall of the chamber, an undeniably dominant male body pressing into him. But it was not his neck that suffered the first blow of lips, as he’d expected; it was his own pink, firewhiskey-tinged mouth which shouldered it.

 

Snape tilted his head upwards with a strong hand and held it there, and Ron opened his mouth to allow the tongue obviously seeking entrance. The kiss was firm and probing and Ron lost himself in the way that tongue seemed to touch upon every one of his teeth, scrape up against his palate and dance with his own in what played out as the most sensual oral meeting he’d ever experienced.

 

They broke apart and Ron didn’t bother to flush at the way his anatomy had reacted to the contact.

“What was… I thought you...?”

“You invited me… You knew what was coming. I assumed that meant you wanted something a little more than me just sinking my teeth into you. I apologise, Weasley.”

Ron reached up and caught the hand which made to push his face to the side, so that Snape would have better access to his throat.

 

“Did I say I didn’t enjoy it?” Ron asked pointedly.

 

Snape looked at him, clearly discomfited, though he did not pull his hand out of Ron’s grasp.

 

“Do it again,” Ron commanded, and closed his eyes when their lips met again.

  
That time he managed to gain a little of the dominance and thrust his own tongue into the wet cavern attacking his lips. Kissing Snape was nothing like he could ever have thought it would be, if he’d spared the time to think about it. Just like his cloak, the man was surprisingly fragrant, and his mouth tasted of something Ron couldn’t quite place, but it wasn’t disgusting as he might have assumed, considering his usual feelings for the man. He returned the oral exploration and massaged gently against Snape’s tongue. He heard a groan slide out of his throat and then the mouth was gone.

 

“Come here,” Snape reached for him and pulled them both down on the floor. Ron went, so swept away by the kiss that his bodily control was shot to pieces. He let himself be arranged in between the man’s legs, his own over one of them to the side. All Ron could think of was repeating those kisses.

 

“If I get this out of the way now,” Snape’s hot breath washed over his ear and Ron had bite back another groan. “Then this will be over soon…”

“And what if I don’t want it over...?”

“We can barely do anything, without the use of my wand I refuse to engage in anything further than touching and oral attention. I refuse to hurt you.”

 

Ron wasn’t an idiot and he knew instantly what Snape was referring to. A boy’s dormitory and five brothers had taught him enough. Or they would have done, if Ron hadn’t secretly had his own sources in the form of some extremely well thumbed wizarding porn.

 

“Then we’ll make do with what you described,” Ron let his head fall back, displaying his throat for the man holding him to see.

“You aren’t scared at all, are you?” Snape’s voice was somewhat incredulous.  
“Well I am drunk,” Ron pointed out. “But as I said… you drink from me, so what? You kill me, I’ll be dead. You turn me… then… you turn me.”

“You don’t fear death?” Snape kissed up the creamy neck to just beneath Ron’s ear. “Or immortality?”

“Death no, immortality, maybe.”

“Then why aren’t you scared?”

 

Ron swallowed before answering. “Because I trust you not to lose control.”

 

Snape didn’t answer him; he merely pressed his lips to the pulse point in Ron’s neck and bit. Ron didn’t scream or even gasp. The fangs pierced his skin effortlessly, and it was so quick it barely hurt. Neither did the upwards sucking motion of blood he sensed, which made his neck tingle as the liquid departed his body.

 

No, hurt didn’t come into play but, as soon as the first rush had gone, pleasure most certainly did. His back arched involuntarily as he moaned, a wave of yearning sweeping away coherent thought as he hardened in his pants. He felt one hand creep across his legs and settle over his crotch, and he shifted into it, groaning at the contact. His breathing sped up as Snape remained at his neck, drinking slowly and silently, and the man’s hand grabbed his shaft through his jeans.

 

“Oh god,” he heard his verbal exclamation and flushed.

 

It was only then that he felt a hardness pressing into his hip, and it took a moment to register that that had to be Snape’s own reaction to what they were doing.

 

 _What we’re doing…_ The words floated across Ron’s mind like someone was projecting them there, onto his total blank canvas. _This is so wrong._ The words weren’t even really coming from him. _But sweet gods this is…_

 

Snape removed his mouth from the redhead’s throat and looked at him, his head tilted back, auburn hair slanted backwards off his brow, eyes shut and mouth parted in the bliss of his donation. He himself felt the glow of the blood in his system, and the sleepy way it filled him up and made him burn.

“That’s it,” he whispered, still close to Ron’s ear, which he then kissed.

“That’s all?” Ron’s eyes opened and beneath the lids his blue eyes were darkened with unconfined lust.

“That’s enough for the first time. I repeat, Weasley, I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I wouldn’t mind,” Ron’s voice was that of a breathless wisp.

“You would when you woke up with a pounding headache unable to move because you are, to all intents and purposes, empty,” Snape’s lips curled up into a small smile and he kissed the ear again.

 

His hand still rested on the aroused crotch and Ron appreciated the heavy feel of it lying there, despite the fact of who it belonged to.

 

“What now?” the question tumbled from Ron’s lips before he could stop it, even though he knew it was stupid.

“What do you want?”

 

Ron wanted to be annoyed at the indecisiveness, but then he found he couldn’t drum up anger towards the man holding him. Ron had caused the final act to occur and it was his responsibility. With that thought sloshing around his drunken mind, Ron turned his face and kissed Snape hotly again. Shaking slightly from the loss of the blood and his nerves, Ron sank a hand into either side of the raven hair, ignoring its greasy state, and gripped hold of the head beneath it. Somehow he managed to twist his body so he was straddling Snape, their groins pressed together by his movement.

 

It was only then that he evoked the first sound of enjoyment from the other man, and it spurred him on no end. Ron kissed again, still holding Snape’s head in his hands and rolled his hips, creating delicious pressure between the two of them. He felt hands on his waist, spreading out over his back, pulling him closer into the wanting arms.

 

And Ron _did_ feel wanted, he didn’t know if that was due to the intimacy born from feeding his sexual partner or not, but he didn’t care. Never before had arms encircled him like that. Even if it changed come the moment they were done, it would be worth it for the memory.

 

“Ron,” the sound of his first name sounded alien on Snape’s lips but he delighted in it, and gave another roll of his hips to see if he could entice it again. The sexual groan he got was far, far superior. “Don’t you want to... I’ll…”

 

Silencing him with a kiss, Ron licked along the crease in Snape’s lips and entered him again, idly wondering why the man was handing over so much control, it didn’t seem like his personality to do so. “Why aren’t you being more…”

“Forceful?” Snape asked.

Ron gave a nod and swallowed.

“Do you want me to be?”

 

A moment’s indecision gave Snape the chance to lean him backwards towards the floor, body bent backwards in strong arms. Ron’s breath accelerated to an embarrassingly loud pant and his mouth was open in anticipation. He didn’t see Snape’s smirk of satisfaction, which came from the fact that although he regretted the situation they found themselves in, he couldn’t help but enjoy it.

 

“If you could see yourself,” he said in a low voice, leaning forward to kiss up the centre of the exposed throat, “You would never doubt why anybody would be attracted to you again…”

 

“Shut up,” Ron swallowed, and his throat bobbed in the candlelight. “I don’t need your assurances and I sure as hell don’t need you to justify your actions… just do it.”

 

_Whoa. Where the fuck did that come from?_

He sat up and looked down at the man beneath him, into his dark eyes. The face was impassive but when Snape spoke next, he did not sound angry. “I understand.”

 

And without another word he pushed Ron completely onto his back and was on top of him before Ron could get words out his mouth. Fingers were at his jeans, tearing open the zip. Ron let it happen, he was still too dazzled by his little outburst to protest. And he certainly didn’t want to when he felt a hot mouth on his freed erection.

 

 _This is mad… this is Snape… and he’s…_ “Ohmysweetfuck…” Ron pressed upwards as a wet tongue washed across the top of his cock, fervently repeating the action when it was well received, and pressed into the slit for extra measure. “Fuck that’s good…”

 

There was no reply, only a continual washing of tongue and spit mixing with what he was embarrassed to feel were his own juices. His face burned and he squeezed his eyes closed, even though he knew it was ridiculous to be ashamed.

 

 _This is so fucked up… so fucked up…_ “NoooMerlindon’t stop,” and before he knew what he was doing, he reached out a hand and pushed it to the back of Snape’s head, holding it in place against his crotch.

 

There was no sound from Snape and Ron tensed a little, wondering if he’d overstepped a spoken boundary. But then the mouth returned with added force and Ron shuddered with pleasure as his cock disappeared into the heat. His surprised shout hit the small walls of the chamber and bounced back, echoing around them both and instead of cringing Ron found it pressed the fire through his body even further, a crawling lust through his veins, spreading to the tips of his fingers and into his toes, which curled instinctively.

  
“Fuck yes…” pressing upwards he managed to sheath more of himself into the heat and he groaned again. “God, Snape… Severus…”

 

He didn’t know where the urge to use the man’s first name came from, and he had no idea whether Snape would permit it, but as the sucking only increased between his legs, he assumed that was the case, so he hissed the name again, letting it roll over his tongue, elongating each s. The sucking increased to near unbearable levels and Ron whimpered and choked with desire, his knees bending, feet slapping onto the floor and he pushed upwards with the most strength yet.

 

And with that simple movement, he felt the tip of his dick graze was undoubtedly the back of Severus Snape’s throat, and the heat melted him to his very bones as he came undone, crying his release to the small chamber. As with so much else that had happened in the time they’d been together, his eyes snapped open without reason and he jerked again when he saw those dark, hooking eyes looking straight up at him as the mouth sucked every last morsel of evidence away.

“Fuck yes!” Ron’s cry tore hoarsely from his throat as he twitched through the immediate aftershocks, and cold air hit his softening cock.

 

Ron couldn’t tear his eyes away from the man as he sat up, delicately wiping his mouth, looking intently back at the redhead undone in every possible sense of the word on the dusty floor.

 

They held each other’s gaze for what seemed like hours before Snape moved to sit back against the wall whilst Ron lay frozen, though he did drop his head back to the floor and panted to the ceiling, eyes refusing to close.

 

Confusion swamped him. Snape had clearly said the experience was erotic for both partners, and yet there was no indication that he wanted anything further from his student. Somehow Ron found the strength to re-arrange his trousers and push himself up on his elbows, but on looking, Snape had his eyes closed and his head tilted back against the wall.

 

“Severus?”

“Snape,” the eyes flashed open and looked at him.

“Oh.”

“Would you like me to…”

 

A gentle laugh confused Ron further until Snape spoke again. “No. I do not expect you to give me anything in return, Weasley.”

 

After what had just gone between them, the return to last-name-only communication seemed overly harsh to Ron, and as he rose to his feet, he felt a swirl of rejection through his veins.

“But I thought you said it…”

“It is.”  
“But then why-”

“I am in control of myself,” Snape said simply. “You are a student. And I would rather remember the look on your face I have just experienced come the morning, than the shame on my own which would undoubtedly be present should I ask you to repay the favour.”

 

“But-”

 

“I suggest you try and get some sleep, Mr. Weasley.”

 

Ron choked on the second part of his sentence. _‘..I want to.’_


	2. A Convenient Disorder

There was no describing the burning feeling pulling at Severus Snape’s body as he strode towards his dungeon quarters. His mouth reeled with the taste of the youngest Weasley male and it overpowered him at every turn. He had to get rid of it at any cost, and as he burst through the doors to his rooms, his hands were shaking. He blasted open the magically cooled chest in his bedroom and grabbed the first vial he could find, not bothering to look what or whose blood he was drinking. It tasted disgusting compared to the fresh, vibrant version he’d had during the night.

 

He closed his eyes and shuddered, his forearms creeping with sensation as he took in a deep breath out of habit. Three years of being a Vampire hadn’t beaten out of him over thirty years of the need for air. And people often tended to notice when he didn’t breathe.

 

 _Calm down, Severus._ He instructed himself through his mind and willed himself to slow his erratic heart. Vampirism was certainly no easy ride. Nothing changed, except the want for blood, and the fact he would never age. But his body functioned the same, though he needed far less oxygen to operate. He could still bleed his own blood (ever-replenishing), his heart still beat and he could sweat, produce oil in his hair…

 

 _And orgasm just the same. But better_.

 

He batted the annoying thought away as the image of Ron Weasley spread wantonly like a delicious preserve across a crumpet swum on his closed eyelids. Severus never wanted to be grateful to Harry Potter for anything, but he found himself being so, in that Potter had missed Weasley’s presence and alerted McGonagall at first light. They’d been released from the infernal prison with surprise all round when their rescue party had cracked open the wall and found Ron Weasley asleep on Severus Snape’s shoulder.

 

_Well I wasn’t going to push his head off. That would have been rude._

Explanations had got Severus away from the young man that had been intoxicating him for three hours after their blood-donation-cum-sexual-encounter, but there had been one crucial flaw in that plan. Potter had immediately dragged Weasley off to the tower, with McGonagall screeching about punishment… and Severus never had the chance to Obliviate him.

 

So there was a redhead, probably asleep by that point, tucked up warm in Gryffindor tower, missing lessons, who would awaken and wonder just what the hell had happened to him the night before.

 

_And then all hell breaks loose._

 

Anyone in the corridor would have been horrified at the sudden outburst of language which was bellowed about the Potion Master’s living quarters had they been walking past.

 

***

Ron’s first thought was for his pounding head. The curtains were drawn around his bed, which was good, because he was in relative darkness, but still his poor dehydrated brain throbbed. Even thinking seemed to hurt and he found that out the hard way.

 

_Really regretting the tenth and eleventh now. Ow. Oh god. I took a fucking sobering solution on my way up to the castle… so what the hell? This shouldn’t be so bad._

 

Ron managed to turn his head on the pillow and felt a soreness in his shoulders and neck which didn’t make sense. He’d not been dancing nor doing anything remotely strenuous.

 

_I remember getting back to the gates and the solution not having worked… drunk… someone was there?_

  
“Ron, are you up?” The dormitory door banged open and suddenly the curtains of his bed ripped open, with an angry-faced Hermione standing there with Harry behind her making apologetic eyes and shrugging hopelessly. “What the hell were you thinking last night?”

“I didn’t mean it to get so late,” Ron slurred in his speech and Hermione looked at him.  
“Are you still drunk?”

“No,” Ron really wasn’t, but he just felt so tired.

“Just because you were out half the night getting sloshed with the twins doesn’t mean you can skive your lessons, Ron, this is our last year and it’s important! We nearly messed it all up once, Ron, we were given a second chance! Get up!”

“’Mione, I can’t…”

“Get up!” She repeated, much more loudly, and the crashing in Ron’s head almost deafened him.

 

“He doesn’t look well,” Harry interrupted the rant Hermione had broken into about irresponsibility and how disappointed his mother would be if he were expelled from school.

“I’m not surprised, up half the night, locked in the freezing castle walls.”  
“With Snape,” Harry snorted in disgust.  
“What?” Ron asked, blinking stupidly.  
“Don’t you remember?” Harry looked at Hermione. “Snape was in there with you; he tried to prevent you invoking the enchantment and got dragged through there with you? McGonagall says she hates having to praise him but said he did the right thing, not letting you go by yourself.”

 

 _Did the right thing…_ Ron thought on those words, as though they had some sort of other significance. _So I spent the night in a stone chamber with Snape. God. Bet he was ready to hex me to hell and back. I’m a cocky bastard when I’m pissed._

 _  
_ “We have to be in Potions in ten minutes,” Hermione looked at her watch. “Get up. Now.”

She strode from the room and slammed the door behind her, and Harry watched her go. “I’m sorry, she overheard me explaining to the guys,” he apologised sheepishly.

 

Ron felt more awake but hardly any less dizzy. “S’all right.”

 

He pushed himself out of the bed and staggered until he grabbed hold of one of his bedposts.

 

“I’m not sure you should be going anywhere,” Harry looked at him worriedly.

“She’s only going to go off on one again. I’d rather go to Potions than listen to her,” Ron reached for his school robes.

 

***

The first thing Ron noticed was that he was extremely cold, even though he was huddled inside his outer school robe. The dungeons were always chilly, but it seemed to be within his bones.

 

_I think I was cold last night. Maybe I caught something?_

 

The door opened again then and Snape walked in front of their NEWT class and glared at them all. “Page 53 of your books,” he said in a bored drawl. “Follow the instructions and try to successfully make a Sobering Solution.”

 

 _Heh,_ Ron thought. _That’s ironic. Must be directed at me._

 

Hermione was bustling next to him, setting up her cauldron, and even Harry was arranging his tripod and the fire-proof mat. Tiredly, and suppressing a yawn, Ron did the same, not really paying attention because he was so tempted to put his head down on the desk and sleep.

 

“Weasley,” a sharp voice dragged him out of his funk.

 

***

_I really thought he’d be in bed all day, the looks of his hangover this morning. Fucking moronic brat._

 

“Weasley,” Severus laced his tone with as much venom as he could muster when the eighteen-year-old’s blood sang to him like a beautiful aria. “Wake up. Just because you choose to spend your nights gallivanting does not mean you are permitted to slack off in your lessons.”

 

A hazy-eyed pale face blinked back at him.

 

_He looks god-awful._

 

“Weasley!” Severus snapped his fingers loudly in front of the nonplussed face for effect, and the boy did move, then.

 

He jerked out of his stool and fell onto the floor.

 

The Granger girl was kneeling by his side in seconds, and Severus found himself filled with a possessive fire he did not understand. One donation, one blow job –it explained nothing as to why he suddenly felt protective of the young man half-unconscious on the lab floor.

 

“Professor,” Granger looked up at him, her eyes wide, full of concern.

“Hermione, I told you, you should have let him in stay in bed,” Potter hissed. “He wasn’t well.”

“Out of the way,” Severus said finally, and ducked down, gathering the redhead in his arms.

“Pummedown,” Weasley’s head lolled against Severus’ shoulder and the older man had to work hard to control the shiver running riot up and down his spine.

 

***

In Snape’s arms, Ron was overcome with a sweet, fragrant smell, one he suddenly recognised, and with that smell, everything else he’d been missing since awakening  came flooding back.

 

_Shit and fuck. He’s a vampire. Last night he sucked my blood and then my cock. SHIT AND FUCK._

 

And then Ron really did pass out.

 

***

When Ron came to, he was in the hospital wing, on one of the generic beds which were the most uncomfortable thing he’d ever had the misfortune to place his backside on. And they were too short for him, even without opening his eyes he knew his feet were dangling off the end, even if they were covered by starched sheets and the itchy blankets.

 

_Feels like there are quiet a few blankets on here, this is strange. But so, so warm. God. Godddddddd it’s good._

Ron didn’t realise he’d groaned aloud and on his forehead he suddenly felt a warm hand. “Ron, it’s okay.”

 

A female voice, one he recognised. The hand stroked across his brow and pushed his hair back. He twitched with irritation at the feeling and groaned again, trying to display his ill content but it only seemed to spur whoever it was on.

 

“Madame Pomfrey, I think he’s waking up.”

“Oh good, now I can get this in him,” a much more mature female voice spoke. “Out of the way please, Ms. Granger. In fact, it is now after curfew. You and Mr. Potter should return to your dormitories. Weasley will be staying put for tonight, and I will be putting him straight back into a sleep once he has taken his medication.”

 

Ron kept his eyes firmly closed as he heard chairs scraping over the flagstone floor and then Hermione called out, “We’ll be back in the morning, Ron.”

“Night,” that was Harry, and then, blissfully, he heard their retreating footsteps.

 

It wasn’t that Ron didn’t want his friends by his bedside, because he did. But he just felt so wretched that their very presence, even the sound of their breathing, might irritate him. He needed a visitor who couldn’t breathe, wouldn’t make a sound.

 

He finally chanced to crack open his eyes and was met by the dim lighting of the ward, and the not-so-smiling face of Madame Pomfrey. “Welcome back, Mr. Weasley. You’ve just missed your bedside guard.”

 

“I knew they were here,” Ron croaked, and swallowed, trying to clear his foggy throat. “W-what happened?”  
“My tests have all indicated that you suffer from a minor infliction of a blood disorder called anaemia, Mr.Weasley, did you know that?”  
“No,” Ron answered honestly –it was very rare that anything was wrong with him health-wise.

“Well, it flared up for some reason. It was the reason you fainted.”  
“Not a hangover then?”  
“No, the anaemia was the reason the sobering solution you took didn’t exactly work.”

“You know about that, huh?”

“I know everything, Mr. Weasley,” she laughed and Ron hoped his face wasn’t as alarmed as his mind.

 

_She knows everything? Does she know about Snape? Oh my God. Oh fucking God._

 

“So what might have caused it to flare?” Ron frowned.

“Well, if you’d lost any blood, I’d say that,” the matron told him. “But you haven’t. Not a cut on you. So it’s just one of those things, it would seem. You just need some replenishing potion and a good rest and you’ll be as right as rain again. Not to worry.”

“But what does it mean?”

“It means that your body doesn’t quite produce enough red blood cells to carry enough oxygen around the body. And if, for example, you had lost some blood, that would cause you to be tired and faint. In the muggle world, for example, anaemic people are not allowed to donate blood, as it would be detrimental to their health.”

 

_Well there we have the cause of the flare up then. Merlin. Thanks a bunch, Snape._

_…. Can’t blame him. I seem to remember inviting him. Shit._

 

“I don’t think I’ll need drugging to go back to sleep,” Ron said sleepily. “I promise I’m already halfway there.”

She looked at him with a scrutinising gaze and must have agreed with what she saw, because she gave a curt nod and said, “Just the replenishing potion then. It’s not particularly pleasant, I warn you. It will taste of what it’s trying to replace, due to all the iron.”

 

Ron opened his mouth obediently as she tipped a large glass to his lips. She was right, it was utterly vile but he dutifully drank, just because he wanted to feel human again.

 

_Human. Last night you could have kissed goodbye to humanity forever._

“You’re a surprisingly good patient,” she observed. “Well. As you don’t need a sleeping draught, I’ll leave you in peace to rest. See you in the morning, Mr. Weasley.”

 

Ron smiled and laid his head back down, closing his eyes as dutifully as he had swallowed the disgusting concoction to restore him to full health. He heard the matron dim the lights, and then the soft thuds of her rubber soled shoes on the flagstones, and finally, the closing of the door to her quarters. And then he opened his eyes again, relieved to be alone so he could do what he had wanted to do since he had first woken up.

 

He extracted his hand from beneath the blankets and ran his fingertips over the side of his throat that he remembered Snape biting. There were no indents, no scabs, the flesh wasn’t even painful when he applied pressure. His neck and shoulders still ached as they had that morning, but physically it seemed as though there was nothing to show from his adventure with Severus Snape, the school vampire.

 

Ron closed his eyes in relief, he had wondered about the marks on his neck –surely they would have been noticed in his examination. But if there was nothing there then his, and by proxy Snape’s, secret was safe. And Ron intended for it to stay that way. He yawned, and opened his eyes and nearly screamed in terror when he saw there was someone standing at the end of his bed. He had heard nobody approach and his heart threatened to burst out of his ribcage. As it was, he managed to clamp his hand over his mouth and stifle his scream, though he did jump upright in the bed, despite all his aching body parts and pounding-again head.

 

“Weasley,” Snape spoke, in a low, carrying voice. “Did you not think it would be a good idea to tell me that you were anaemic?”

Ron panted through his hand, the fear from his sudden visitor emanating in a cold sweat all over his body.

 

“Scared of me?” The tall man walked up beside his bed and dropped soundlessly into the chair which had been Hermione’s not ten minutes before. “I must say that’s comforting, last night you were so stupidly cocky I wondered if your head was on right.”

“I’m not scared of _you,_ ” Ron hissed, finally gaining control of his speech faculties. “I was scared of the fact you came from bloody nowhere.”  
“Language,” Snape reminded him brusquely.

“I think it’s a bit late for language warnings,” Ron muttered, easing himself back so he could lean against his pillows. “Why… why are you here?”

 

_Want another feed?_

“I wanted to check on your welfare.”

 

_I wouldn’t have said no._

 

That thought made Ron jerk his head and Snape looked at him closely. “What’s the matter, Weasley, afraid I was coming back for more so soon?”

“No,” Ron whispered.

“You are no longer drunk, Mr. Weasley. You do not have to pretend you enjoy such attention now.”

“I don’t recall pretending during any part of last night,” Ron said, his voice hoarse.

 

Snape gave him a long, hard look, then shook his head with a mutter and turned his head away.

“What?” Ron frowned.

“Nothing, Weasley. I hope you recover quickly. I will not bother you again.”

“But I invited you to…”  
“I will fight that urge as I did last night,” Snape looked pained as he said it.

 

“And if I don’t want you to?”

“Now that’s dangerous talk, Weasley.”  
“Ron.”  
“Weasley.”

“Well done, yes, that’s my full name,” Ron sighed, wishing his head would stop swimming.

“You are incredibly infuriating, has anybody ever told you that?” Snape groused, eyes glittering in the almost extinguished ward lights.

 

“I didn’t know…”

“That you’re infuriating?” Snape’s eyebrow quirked with something akin to amusement, although he’d never admit that aloud.

“That I was anaemic,” Ron said softly. “If I had, I would have told you.”

“I am glad,” Snape told the prone young man. “It makes this easier.”

“Makes what easier?”

“It would be detrimental to your health, should I ever come calling on you. I will not do that.”

“I never had you down for such a gentleman,” Ron gave a wispy chuckle.

“The point is, Weasley, I’m not a _man_ at all.”

 

All traces of the laughter faded and Ron looked at him with a swallow. “It felt…amazing.”  
“That is the nature of my kind feeding,” Snape shrugged. “It would feel that way with any one of us not drinking to kill.”  
“Or turn,” Ron said softly.

“That’s right,” Snape looked discomfited at just how much of the night before Ron could remember –and Ron somehow just knew the man had spent the day hoping his student might have been drunk enough to pass it off as some odd, erotic adolescent nightmare.

 

_Not a nightmare by a long shot. Fantasy, now we’re talking._

 

Ron snorted with laughter at his own mind and bit into his lip when he realised Snape was staring at him.

“What, might I ask, was funny?”

“That you thought I’d be drunk enough to pass last night off as a drunken nightmare.”  
“How did you know that I…”

“I’m perceptive when I want to be,” Ron gave a small shrug of his shoulders, but instantly regretted it, pain coursed through his upper body. “Gods above why am I so sore?”

 

A smile did cross Snape’s lips then and Ron wanted to scowl that it could only come at what seemed as a reaction to his pain. But when Snape spoke, his voice was soft and somewhat kind.

“You spent a lot of time with your neck back and your shoulders squared. You were bound to ache.”  
“It only felt like seconds?” Ron was puzzled.

“It would feel that way to you as a donor. Time rushes, you’re lost in your own pleasure… I know what it is like, Mr. Weasley. I can still donate to other vampires.”  
“But the books say you’re inhuman, you don’t have blood-”

 

“The books are wrong,” Snape sighed simply. “Just as they do not tell you the true nature of what you experienced last night, they do not include the true bodily nature of being one of my kind. The ministry feels if they keep up the line in the books, that people will simply refrain from acquainting with us, as we are too sub-human to be safe.”  
“Well, that’s a load of bollocks then,” Ron rolled his eyes.

“You do have a remarkable talent for bluntly assessing the truth, Weasley. I commend you for that.”

 

“So what now?” Ron whispered, looking over at the man _–humping bloody Hufflepuffs, how many times, Ron, V-A-M-P-I-R-E!_ \- seated next to his bed.

“‘Nothing’ is what now,” Snape rose to his feet, as silently as he had entered the hospital wing. “You will return to full health and I will stay as far away from you as I possibly can without arousing suspicion. You will see me in Potions lessons and nowhere else.”

 

Ron was surprised how much the thought of that disappointed him, and he didn’t bother to hide it on his face. Snape looked at him fleetingly before stepping away making it halfway down the infirmary before Ron spoke again.

 

***

Against his better judgement, Severus stopped and turned around.

“What did you say?” He asked quietly, not wanting his voice to resonate far enough to reach the matron.

“I said you don’t have to stay away,” Weasley looked straight him.

 

As though an invisible force had glued his feet to a moving board, Severus walked back towards the redhead’s bed and stood by its side once more, gazing down at the freckled inhabitant with an intense gaze.

 

“Trust me, Weasley, it will be for the benefit of us both that I do.”

“Really?” he asked dubiously. “Really, resisting my blood is a good call for you? It’s not going to drive you slowly insane… to have this blood here, to have been invited to have it whenever you wish, to want drink it in, but to-”

“Stop,” Severus hissed, the luscious words rolling over him like silk bed sheets, and his spine tingled again as it had in the lab when Weasley had been in his arms. When that voice had become so powerful, Severus could not pinpoint. “You are not drunk this time, you will have no out if you say something you regret.”  
“I’m not using my inability to hold my drink as an out, Severus,” Weasley looked at him with honest eyes.

“Professor Snape,” Severus hissed pointedly.

 

Weasley just smiled at him, in a way which might have been serene if Severus hadn’t’ve been stripping through the bedclothes with his eyes, eager to see the creamy flesh of the man once more.

 

Gathering all the courage he could muster, Severus stepped level with the pillows on the bed and leant close to Weasley’s face. When they were looking directly into each other’s eyes, Severus spoke. “Get this into your thick head, Weasley, I spell incontrovertible trouble for you. Nothing, and I repeat that again so that it might chance sink through your skull to your brain –nothing good can come of this. And nothing will. _Goodnight,_ Mr. Weasley.”

 

“Nothing good?” Weasley seemed utterly ethereal in the dim lights of the hospital wing, and all of Severus’ tightly gathered control flowed away like a stream down a mountainside as the teenager stretched out a hand, grasped the front of his robes, pulled him close, and kissed him.

 

It was a brief and somewhat tight lipped affair until Weasley swiped his tongue against the older man’s mouth and in surprise Severus was fool enough to part his lips a fraction, but that was all it seemed the redheaded needed to press his luck. Before Severus knew it, his mouth was full of a foreign tongue, one he had craved ever since he had last had it, and he was loathe to let it leave him behind once more.

 

And so Severus kissed back, bent awkwardly over the bed, eyes closed as he kissed, tasting the remnants of the blood replenishing potion in the opposing mouth.

 

_That would allow this to work… if he has to legitimately take those potions to keep himself well… nobody would know. It would be as if the blood never left him, and I was never there…_

 

Severus refused to listen to himself and merely concentrated on the way the wet tongue danced with his, matching him move for move, even though the owner was considerably younger than he was.

 

_Well, like that’s an issue. I’m not getting any older, am I?_

 

With that invading thought, Severus lurched back, leaving Ron open-mouthed with his eyes shut, looking gloriously whorish.

 

“If you know what’s good for you, you will never do that again,” Severus hissed, and turned on his heel, exiting the hospital wing as stealthily as he had entered it.

 

***

_Stone the bloody crows. How is someone as ugly as he is such a good kisser?_

 

Ron swallowed as he lay back on his pillows, breathing unevenly as he recovered from the waves of lust the kiss had pushed through him. A kiss which he had, once more, instigated.

 

_And he didn’t fight it for the meantime._

 

Letting his eyes close, Ron slid further down the bed, back into the warmth of the triple layered blankets covering his body. He replaced his hand back within it and sighed as it came to a stop on his hip.

 

_I said ugly. Well. He’s not that ugly, really._

 

Ron’s eyes re-opened as he considered his thoughts, and they slid sideways to see his wand resting on the bedside table.

 

_What am I talking about; the man’s got a nose like a medium sized country and enough grease in his hair to fry a double pack of bacon. DAMMIT, RON, VAMPIRE! NOT MAN!_

Closing his eyes again, Ron knew what he was going to do before he actually did it, and his hand crept into the standard issue hospital pyjamas without a second consideration. He had already been made half-hard by the kiss, which told him enough about the effect his vampire Professor had on him without the need for deep contemplation. He wrapped his fingers around his cock and pulled at it a few times, teasing himself into full hardness without much effort. His thoughts turned to fantasy.

 

 _I’m walking to a lesson through a deserted corridor._ Ron winced at his cheesy fantasy mind but decided to go with it because it was all he had, along with his hand. _Out of nowhere, he grabs me and slams me behind a tapestry._ In his mind’s eye Ron saw the scene, the strong raven-haired professor throwing him helplessly against a wall, his eyes gleaming. _And then he kisses me, just like before._ Ron bit back a groan at that memory and pulled harder with his hand, speeding up his strokes. _And then he’d just look at me, dare me to protest, and sink his teeth into me._ Ron recalled the swirling pleasure he’d experienced the night before and opened his mouth in a silent gasp to the empty hospital wing. _And when he’s drinking from me, he’d wank me with those thin, nimble hands…_ Ron paused at that, wondering when he’d ever stopped to consider Severus Snape’s hands, but he was too far involved to stop. _He’d have more from me this time, enough that I could nearly come in his hand from that alone. And when he knows I’m at that point, he would detach and sink down on his knees at my feet…_ Ron knew he was arching up off the bed with want, his own hand failing to be adequate attention. _And then that mouth would lick and suck me like it did last night, tasting me, never complaining, making me moan and cry out._

Ron couldn’t remember ever making himself spill so easily before, but that was what happened, and moments later he was coming with silent gasps, arching into his own hand, slowly milking himself to completion, lost in a haze of thoughts of the dark-haired man who had only minutes before been attached to him at the lip.

 

***

Severus was barely coherent as he fell onto the mostly pointless bed he kept in his bedroom. His hand was already in his trousers, fighting against the fabric he had forgotten to unbutton in his haste to orgasm. He was barely on the mattress before he started stroking, the burning call of Weasley’s blood driving him almost to insanity –his forearms were crawling again.

 

That sensation alone was enough to drive him to near insanity. He repeated to himself in his mind that what he was doing was a distraction from that alone, and with that he lost himself to the fantasy his mind had been trying to tantalise him with all day.

 

_Ripped clothing everywhere, nothing left on that delicious, creamy body and everything exposed, just for me. Gods, I’ll bet he’s fucking gorgeous under those clothes. I could totally dominate him and he wouldn’t fight, he wants it, I know he does. He wants me to make him beg and moan and scream with need. And it is need. Need beyond what he’s ever known before, need he didn’t know existed without me._

Severus gasped aloud, eyes rolling back in his head, as he pulled hard at his erection, his left hand working clumsily to undo the button at his waist, which finally popped open a devastatingly long minute later, and the zip shot open under the pressure from his hand buried beneath the material. An undignified buck of the hips later, they were halfway down his thighs.

 

 _Just like his were last night before I sucked him in the other way I know I’m good at._ Another groan reached the canopy of the bed and he then let himself dream of what he had rejected the opportunity of the night before. _And then he could return the favour, licking and sucking me off, tasting me for the first time, carrying away the proof of what his body does to me on his hot, wet tongue._ Severus suddenly lamented he’d not taken the time to get his trousers off, because he realised nothing would have ended his torment quicker than plunging three fingers inside of himself. But there was no way he was stopping now. _God yes. The sight of that red mouth stretched around me, looking down at him, his nose pressing into me as he takes me in fully, gagging slightly, choking on the length but never giving up… oh sweet Merlin._

 

A feral growl slipped from his mouth then and Severus suddenly wondered how Ron would react to that sound, if his back would stiffen with fear or lust. _Lust, I’d bet. He seems to be a sensual thing. So I would pounce, roll him on his front and attack his neck again, suck him once more, grinding into his backside._

Imagining his prick entombed in such a way had him mewling while he poured into his working hand, desperately swabbing the pad of his thumb back and forth across the tip of his erection, delighting in the way it stung with every press of flesh to flesh.

 

“Oh sweet gods Ron yes…” that admonition was verbal and it shocked him into opening his eyes and stilling his hand, though his cock still twitched within it and leaked the remainder of his orgasm with a full body shudder.

 

Then without giving himself a moment to relax – _a moment you do not deserve, you disgusting excuse of a soul-_ he threw himself off the bed and headed for the shower.

 

***

Three days later saw Ron perfectly restored to health, and serving detention for his illicit night time excursion.

 

“Maybe you’ll think twice about leaving the castle without permission, Weasley. You might have been there at the defeat of the Dark Lord, but I am disgusted to see you jeopardising your second chance to complete your education successfully,” McGonagall was _still_ railing at him. He’d already been there an hour and a half.

 

“I know, Professor, and I apologise.”  
“Apologise all you like, Weasley, if this happens again it will not be tolerated. And you can be the one to tell your mother.”

 

Ron winced thinking on that and went back to manually cleaning out the cages of the animals kept for transfiguration purposes within the school.

 

“Well at least you’re still afraid of your mother at any rate,” McGonagall fumed. “I have a staff meeting I need to attend in half an hour. Finish up here and I will see you tomorrow night, Weasley.”

 

Ron inwardly groaned but didn’t protest that he’d be spending his Friday night in detention.

 

_I’m fucking nineteen in March. I hate that she has this much control over me. I wish I’d not bothered coming back._

Ron sighed as he scrubbed determinedly at the cage, thinking back on his choice to return to the school with Harry and Hermione. He had only done so for their company –the lure of the real world was not enough when they would have been back in the castle without him.

 

_And… if you’d not come back, you wouldn’t have found your new favourite fantasy._

Three nights had passed since his stay in the hospital wing, and four since his imprisonment in the stone chamber with Snape. His Professor had kept his word and Ron had only seen him the once, in Potions, since their last kiss. But that did not mean it was the last time he had recalled the sensations, or pleasured himself whilst thinking on them. No. Three nights, three devastating orgasms –and even cleaning the disgusting cage, his prick gave a twitch as the images began to seep into his mind once more.

 

_Ew, not here. She might come back. And I really need to wash my hands._

 

Declaring his job done, Ron set the cage down and cast a cleaning spell on his hands, though it did not feel enough. Picking up his bag, he left the transfiguration store classroom and headed into the hallway, aiming for the bathroom at the end of the corridor.

 

 

With scalding hot water and soap coating him, Ron felt much cleaner. He rinsed off the suds, dried his large, pale hands, and looked at himself in the mirror. As pale as ever, freckles marring his face, hair messy – _mum’s going to do her nut when she sees me at Christmas, fuck-_ and uniform rumpled as ever, he looked as though there had been no interruption in his schooling whatsoever. Despite how tall he was, he could have passed for sixteen again.

 

_And that would make Snape a pervert._

Ron swallowed thinking his name, still looking at himself in the mirror. He saw how his throat bobbed and wondered just how he might have looked within that chamber, when Snape was sucking him off.

 

_It could be worse._

 

Realising he was pushing the time limit of the pass in his pocket to get him safely back to Gryffindor Tower without earning another detention, Ron turned back out into the corridor and decided to take the back route to his dorm. If McGonagall was in a staff meeting, then everyone else would be too. Ron idly thought that it was rather late for a staff meeting, but paid it no heed as he walked quietly down one of the smaller corridors to a hidden spiral staircase which would at least take him half the way.

 

And that was when the smell hit him. Sweet, almost floral –he knew exactly what it meant, that Snape was nearby. He heard footsteps and then, in a beautifully orchestrated moment of timing, the man in question rounded the corner, clearly in a hurry, checking his watch.

 

Ron stopped and looked at him and Snape did the same, becoming almost as much of a statue as the stone bust of a wizard to their right. Unusually, Ron was struck with the inability to think of what to say, his repertoire of witty opening one-liners completely deserting him. Snape looked to be in much the same state.

 

Ron’s eyes swept over the man and realised just how pale and wan he actually looked –he had not looked that way three nights before leaning over his sickbed in the infirmary. Somehow, as if the knowledge had been there all along but he had never tapped it, Ron understood exactly why Snape looked like that. _Because of me…_

 

Heart pounding with the gravity of what he was about to do, Ron stood up straight, squared his shoulders, flicked his eyes to Snape and then looked purposefully at the tapestry a little way behind him, before sending his gaze back to Snape. He had to turn his head as he did so, and knew it would expose his throat. Without another word, or look, he turned on his heel and ducked behind the tapestry, where he dropped his bag and leaned against the wall, waiting.


	3. Argumentative

Severus was still frozen, looking at the spot where Ronald Weasley had been standing before he had thrown him that hooking seductive look and darted behind the tapestry.

 

_That was worthy of one of my kind, let alone a teenaged bloody boy. Christ alive, no mortal should be permitted to look that…_

 

Severus cut off; his creeping forearms making him shiver. He knew he had a staff meeting to attend, though his absence wouldn’t be greatly missed. And right there behind one of the ugliest tapestries in the entire school waited a prize he had wanted for three days.

 

_This is ridiculous. What are you going to do? Just keep on meeting him in random corridors, sucking his blood and plugging him full of replenishing potions before pushing him on his merry way?_

No, Severus very well knew that he could not do that. Someone, somewhere would notice, would see them.

 

_Well it’s not like you don’t have your own quarters in which to do this, it doesn’t have to be a corridor…_

 

Growling at himself, Severus clenched his hands into tight fists, his fingernails digging in so tightly he might have cut himself had he not released them instantly, but his creeping skin was driving him so very mad he knew that he was going to give in. He knew he was going behind the tapestry.

 

_Like there was ever any doubt._

With his stomach in his throat, Severus silently moved to slide behind the thick old fabric. Weasley was leaning against the wall, looking out of the mullioned window at the November rain. Severus didn’t know if Ron was trying to look casually aloof by not purposefully acknowledging him as he entered, but it worked, and in Severus’ eyes it only made Ron seem more attractive.

 

_He’s a fucking Weasley. He shouldn’t be attractive at all –like the rest of the donors. Never, ever have I felt so…_

 

Severus sent his mental train of thought off the rails by stepping close to the redhead, who finally turned his face towards him.

 

“Professor,” the word was low, almost whispered, enough to send Severus into a fiery passion.

“Do you have any idea what you’re doing?” Severus couldn’t manage more than a whisper in which to answer him. “You let me do this again and I…”

“And you what?”

Severus didn’t care if his hand trembled or not as he reached up and laid it gently on the side of the freckled face. “I will not be able to resist again.”

 

“Resist what, exactly?”

 

_Gods and hellfire he’s determined to drag this out and taunt me._

 

“You. In every sense of the word.”

“Good.”

“Weasley, I-”

“Drop this Weasley bollocks,” Ron hissed. “If I’m going to be your regular bit of stuff, I want the courtesy of being called by my first name.”

 

 _My regular bit of stuff? Well when he puts it like that…_ Severus bit down a groan as his erection grew in an awkwardly crooked position whilst he thought of all the things he could indulge in with said regularity.

 

“Fine, then, _Ron_ , do you have any idea what you’re getting into?”

“No, Severus, I don’t particularly.”  
“Snape,” Severus had to snap –they still had to retain some ounces of decorum.

 

“Oh no,” Ron shook his head with a small smile. “I’ll address you properly in company, but in private I’m calling you by your first name.”

“Why on earth do you think you’ll be dictating the terms of this?” Severus took a step closer without noticing, and only did so when his body brushed against Ron’s.

“Someone’s got to. It’s very obvious that you can’t control yourself,” Ron raised an eyebrow. “After all, you seemed pretty insistent a few nights ago you’d be resisting this…” One hand reached out and settled on Severus’ chest –the burning in his forearms notched up.

 

“I hadn’t anticipated that you would affect me so much…”

“Neither had I,” Ron had noticed the erection visible through thick robes. “But… I’m a little bit confused… you said only the biting was erotic, and yet…” he slid his hand down over Severus’ stomach and settled it on his crotch and gave the tiniest of squeezes. “And yet, look at that.”

 

Severus snapped his hips backwards and removed the evidence of his perversions from the large hand. He turned glowering eyes to Ron’s smirking face and hissed, “This is just about blood, Weasley. Blood and nothing else. I will not let it _become_ about anything else.”

“Right,” Ron gave a quiet snort.

“You will not touch me again,” Severus warned him.

 

For the first time what looked like actual hurt and disappointment flashed through Ron’s blue eyes and his face fell considerably. “I’m not letting you use me… if I can’t return the favour; you get blood from me and _nothing_ else.”

  
Severus couldn’t deny those words hit him like a slap in the face, it had not occurred to him that Ron might take objection in that way –and fight against his own pleasure purely because he could not dole it back out. _He continues to surprise me._

  
“Didn’t think of that, did you?” Ron scoffed. “That I might not be the sort of person that’d be happy to sit back and take the…” He clearly struggled to find the words with which to describe their meetings. “That I wouldn’t like the fact you can bring me off and yet I would have no chance to do the same to you.”

“You won’t care. Anyway, don’t you have a girlfriend you can exercise your apparently generous nature on?” Severus forced the words out.

“No, I don’t,” Ron replied, just as forcedly. “And, after the last few nights...”

 

Severus looked at him with silent question and didn’t bother to fight when Ron sprang forward, his hands gripping at Severus’ back, holding them tight together.

“I can’t stop thinking about that night,” Ron’s voice was low again. “It’s… all I’ve thought about.”

 

Backing into the alcove wall, Severus tried to formulate his reply but it was useless, because, just as he had that night in the infirmary, Ron initiated a searing kiss, wasting no time in introducing his tongue to the proceedings and Severus couldn’t stir the energy to keep him out. Nor could he keep down the groan which Ron elicited, or the way his body reacted positively.

 

_That’s a lie. You can help all of this, you can stop it if you ignore the pain. And you should do so right now._

 

Tingling forearms kept him pressed between the cold wall and Ron’s body and kept his mouth locked in the kiss. Heat was pooling already in his groin and when the redhead shifted closer, pressing himself fully into Severus’ form, letting their erections meet through their clothing, Severus cringed with utter mortification as he cried out, gasping frantically, against the red, soft lips and came fully dressed and completely untouched.

 

Ron recognised the way his body shuddered, there was no way he could hide or deny what had just happened, the way his orgasm had spilt out of him with little more than a kiss and some barely applied pressure. Blue eyes met black but Ron did not break the kiss or even comment through his blue irises that he found the situation at all amusing.

 

He surprised Severus further than ever before by simply carrying on his kiss, drawing no attention to the way his Professor had finished far too simply for there to be zero attraction between them.

 

_Sweet Salazar he’s just something else. Why. Why haven’t I seen this before?_

 

***

_FUCKING HELL. I JUST MADE HIM…_

 

Ron couldn’t believe the way the man had just shuddered in his arms and cried out against his mouth, Snape’s onyx eyes shocked at the way his orgasm had crept up on him.

 

_I just made a grown man come without so much as laying a proper finger on him. I can’t believe it._

 

But Ron understood how he would have felt, if their situations had been reversed –the way he would have been ashamed at his lack of self control. And so he simply continued plundering the wet space which was his Professor’s mouth, sucking on his bottom lip for good measure and diving straight back in again. There was no point in crowing about victories when it was obvious what flowed between them was electrifying –Ron barely had better control of himself.

 

The need for air drove them apart before either of them wanted to break the kiss off. Ron didn’t care that this man was his Professor, didn’t care that he was in his thirties, didn’t care that he was immortal, or that anybody could find them hidden away in the alcove. All he wanted was that wanted feeling back that he had sampled in the stone chamber, and that he felt as Severus had come against him, gasping into his mouth.

 

_And I don’t give a fucking shit how fucked up that is._

 

It was a moment before Ron realised that glittering eyes were assessing him and he coloured under their scrutiny.

“What?” He asked uncertainly, his eyes following a slim hand which reached up to his face again and was laid upon his cheek. Ron reached for it and dragged it to his mouth, placing a chaste kiss in the palm.

 

He did not release the hand but kept it over his mouth, doling out more of the sweet kisses for every second they stood there in silence, waiting for the dark haired man to say whatever it was he needed to say. Delicate fingers trailed over his kiss-swollen lips and Ron closed his eyes at the touch, which was only feather light but shot straight down his chest into his groin, causing him to press painfully against his uniform trousers.

 

With a gasp he found himself turned, facing the window which he saw when his eyes flew open at the movement. And then there was a whisper of spells and incantations flying through air. Ron couldn’t help his nervous swallow –he remembered the words from the chamber about not hurting him, but that had been because they had had no access to magic… what would Severus want from him now he had untapped magical resources and, what Ron assumed, was a silenced, protected cubby hole where nobody would find them?

 

He must have tensed, because there were gentle hands on his hips, smoothing forward to press back against his stomach, and then a soft, soothing voice in his ear.

“I will not hurt you, nothing has changed. This is wrong, and this is the last time this will happen, do you understand me?”

 

Ron nodded instantly, red hair flying as he did so, too late did he realise that most of it would have hit the man behind him in the face. But no admonition came, there was only the feel of a face being pressed into the soft tresses, and then Ron heard a great intake of breath. He shuddered involuntarily because of the fact Severus was sniffing him, drinking in his scent like one would that of baking bread.

 

“I can’t wait any longer, are you ready?” the voice hissed into Ron’s ear, not threatening but totally shiver-inducing.

“Wait,” Ron begged, and then reached down and fumbled with the button of his trousers and the zipper. Without warning of his intentions, he wrenched one of the hands off his stomach and plunged it into his underwear, gasping as the cool skin of the other man’s hand made contact with his cock.

“Are you sure that’s what you want?” Severus kissed his ear softly.

 

“More than I want you to suck on my neck,” Ron said bluntly, and leant backwards into the solid body.

 

Severus paused for a moment, and then kissed a trail down the creamy throat he had missed with such fervency in the four nights since the last time he’d graced it. Ron was trembling in his arms and Severus curled his fingers tightly around the fully fledged erection Ron had handed him on a plate.

 

Ron waited, tensed for the impact, wondering just how it would feel to be drunk from when he was already at a point of peaking. He felt teeth playfully nip him, and then gasped as they sank straight into his neck, as effortlessly and painlessly as the first time. But the feelings which rose within him were far more powerful than he ever remembered from the stone chamber.

 

“Oh gods, Severus, please god don’t stop…” his begging sounded so ridiculous but he was too lost in the way his chest was full of thickness and the way his cock was being languidly stroked in a firm grip. “So good… so fucking good… please…”

 

Pressing to his backside Ron felt what was undeniably another erection and he marvelled that he could entice another one so quickly –and that had him moaning and groaning again, so continuously the words melted into one another.

 

Severus was just lost in the richness, in the velvet life force gliding through his mouth, into his being which fuelled him beyond a way he could remember before. He wasn’t aware of the way he stroked, whether it was fast or slow, sensual or rough. All he knew was that his mouth and ears were full of the essence of the redhead he held in his arms and it was the most beautiful thing he had ever, ever experienced.

 

“Please, shut me up,” Ron groaned, and he edged nearer to completion as Severus’ free hand came up off his stomach and pressed down over his mouth, doing exactly as he had requested.

 

It pushed them both too far. Ron squirmed and bucked into Severus’ hand, barely keeping his legs upright, and Severus had to pull back his teeth or he would never do so. He sealed his lips over the wound he’d created and licked at it softly before kissing up the neck, tightening his arm over Ron’s hip and pumping at the column he held in earnest.

 

“Mmmmphfuck,” Ron was growing louder and louder and he couldn’t find a way to keep his vocal chords in check. All he wanted was to come and slump against that warm, comforting body. “I need to… got to come please… please…”

Severus squeezed his eyes shut at the way his hand sordidly muffled the begging and trapped the words into nothingness, as though he wouldn’t honour them. He raised his mouth and licked the shell of Ron’s ear, before taking the earlobe between his teeth and nibbling gently.

 

With a guttural cry that Ron was sure he had never made before in his life, he lurched his hips forward and came in the talented hand, sending thick pulses of white liquid everywhere, on the hand itself, on his still-shirted stomach, the floor. It embarrassed him so he closed his eyes and panted, whining through the breaths, as his prick twitched for what seemed like minutes until it was finally empty.

 

And then he slumped backwards like he had longed to, not caring if Severus couldn’t shoulder his weight. He was dizzy from the blood loss and his orgasm and he couldn’t have moved if his life had depended on it.

 

***

Severus looked at the sated figure in his arms and wanted to moan at the way he was just so unbelievably beautiful. How could he possibly be expected to say goodbye to such a vision?

“Are you alright?” Severus whispered in the ear he had been molesting just seconds before.

“I don’t think there’re words for what I am,” Ron breathed.

“That good?” Severus afforded himself a small smile he knew Ron could not see.

“So good it should be illegal.”  
“It is,” dread crashed over Severus like a stormy wave and he nearly stepped back from the sagging body he was holding up.

“It would be illegal if I were younger,” Ron nuzzled his head back against Severus’ shoulder. “I’m not even a real student, just an honorary one who you can give detentions to if you want.”

“You’re still a student,” Severus sighed and Ron seemed to sense what was going to happen next, because he struggled to take his weight on his feet and turned round.

 

“You don’t get to push me away again,” Ron’s eyes were wide. “No. That’s not happening.”

 

Severus watched as the redhead yanked his trousers into place and did them back up, but instead of turning away, as Severus had thought he might, Ron looped his arms about his waist and pulled them close together, and Severus willingly went.

 

“No, you can’t push me away again,” Ron repeated, eyes drifting in and out of focus.  
Severus slowly reached into the inside of his robes and pulled out a vial.

 

“What’s that?” Ron frowned. “Please don’t tell me that’s something to take the memories of this away?”

“No,” Severus hung his head. “Though that would probably be kinder. This is a more concentrated version of blood replenisher.”  
“Why have you got that?” Ron’s brow furrowed and his eyes flicked between the glass vial and Severus’ face.

 

_Because I am a disgusting weak excuse of a creature and I knew I would bend to temptation._

“You’ve been carrying that since I was released from the infirmary,” Ron said astutely, as a warm glow of satisfaction spread through his chest.

“Do not be pleased that I am unable to control my urges around you,” Severus forced some of his usual disdain back into his voice, realising it had become entirely too open. “It will not happen again. Take a mouthful of this now and you will not feel the effects of what you just gave to me.”

 

Ron diligently swallowed a mouthful from the vial, his face contorting at the stronger taste. “I don’t know how you do that, it’s awful.”

“You wouldn’t say that if it was the food keeping you alive, Weasley.”

“Ron.”

“Weasley again now. Really, don’t you listen to a word you’re told?”

 

Scowling, Ron lurched back from Severus and glared at him. “So is this how it’s going to be? Soft when you’re losing control, when you’re going to get what you need, and back to a bastard the second you’ve got it?”

“You’d be a fool to expect anything more of me,” Severus was glad of the temper steaming out of the redhead –it might make his resistance stronger.

“And you’d be a fool to think that would chase me away,” Ron stooped and grabbed his bag, only doing so because his head had stopped swimming and he felt stronger.

 

“What _would_ it take for me to chase you away, hmm? Drink from you too long, let someone find you out cold in the corridor, leaving you making excuses?”  
“I have the perfect excuse,” Ron shrugged. “Worsening anaemia… and nobody would ever know it was you.”

 

“I will not be drinking from you again, Weasley, do you understand me?”

“Are you going to lose the vial, then?” Ron cocked his head to the side calculatingly. “Are you going to chance my health by not carrying it around because you’re so _sure_ this will never happen again?”

 

Cornered, Severus narrowed his eyes. “I cannot risk that.”

“You can’t ‘risk’ it, Severus, because you don’t want to give me up.”

“No, I can’t risk it because it would be imprudent to take such risks what with my position.”

“So you’re telling me you’ve carried that bottle around with you for as long as you’ve been a vampire-teacher, just in case you felt like a nibble on a student or two?” Ron raised an eyebrow. “Don’t give me that bollocks; we both know you have it because of me. And your position means squat. Nobody has to know, nobody would even suspect. Why on earth would they assume that a Weasley who probably even shits Gryffindor colours in private would go for _you_?”

 

Ron’s voice had grown louder during his rant and Severus stared him with blinking eyes, jaws locked together in shock.

 

“All you need to know, all you even need to bloody think about,” Ron stepped closer to him and pressed his face to Severus’, “Is that I’m willing, I’m not scared, and I’m the person who made you come without even being touched.”

 

And then Ron turned, ripped back the tapestry, thus breaking all the enchantments, and disappeared, leaving Severus alone, still holding the troublesome vial in his hand, which trembled.

 

***

“Are you reading a book?” Harry’s voice echoed loudly through the library and he received a loud ‘shhh!’ from someone in the next aisle.  
“Might be,” Ron flicked his eyes upwards to look at his best friend. “Thought, you know, it might be time to start actually listening to Hermione.”

Harry gave a snort and dropped down into the vacant seat next to Ron. “Let me know how that works out for you. Why’re you bothering with that? We’re at the top of the DADA class.”

“Doesn’t hurt to re-read it though,” Ron said, closing the book so Harry wouldn’t comment that he was reading about vampires.

 

“Where’s Hermione?” Ron asked, returning the front two legs of his chair back to earth along with his feet.

“Gave her the slip whilst she was shouting at some poor fifth year kid.”

“She’s being pretty full-on this year, huh?”

“She’s never gotten over nearly messing up her NEWTs, even if it was for the good of the wizarding world,” Harry rolled his eyes and opened his bag. “Not sure she’ll ever forgive me to be honest.”  
“How dare you have a place in the history books?” Ron grinned, and chucked the book down on the table in front of them.

 

“Ron, can I talk to you about something?” Harry asked, somewhat nervously, and Ron’s heartbeat stepped up a notch.

 

True to his word, Severus had kept away for an entire week and Ron had seen him nowhere other than in Potions class and school mealtimes, much to the redhead’s utter disappointment. But Ron couldn’t be sure his friends hadn’t caught his eyes lingering over the dark hair, emotive eyes and stiff posture. He was trying his hardest but, as alarming as it was that he suddenly thought so, Severus Snape had an absolutely perfect backside. And it took all of Ron’s brainpower not to drool when he caught sight of it.

 

“Hermione wants to ask you to go with her to Hogsmeade for the Christmas trip,” Harry kept his voice low in accordance to the library rules. “She’s going to ask you tonight. She’s convinced you’ll say no.”

“And you’re telling me to say yes?” Ron raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t you want to say yes?” Harry asked, emerald eyes clouding with confusion. “I thought you… you know… liked her.”

 

In fact, no, Ron hadn’t ‘liked’ Hermione since the end of the war, when her grating attitude and constant put downs had become a little too much for him to bear, after standing alongside her with every bit as much as accomplishment within him as she had within her.

 

“Not so much lately,” he confessed to Harry, chewing on his lip. “Well… for a while, really.”

“But you always seemed so…”  
“Suited?”

“Well, yeah.”  
“What’s suited about two people who always fight, and one always puts the other down, Harry?”

“She does that to everyone,” Harry whispered. “Including me. And Ginny. You know she’s just…”

“Do you think I want to have that in my bed as well as my friendship?” Ron asked candidly, and turned to pick up his quill.

 

Harry stayed silent for a moment and Ron could tell he was under scrutiny whilst he doodled a star on the edge of some spare parchment.

 

“Well, then you need to tell her that,” Harry said. “She still thinks you’re… well. You know that from the fact she wants to ask you to Hogsmeade.”

“I’ll talk to her,” Ron said absently, eyes un-focussing as he stared into the bookshelf behind the table.

“Good. Give me fair warning so I can get the hell out of there. I have a feeling you’re about to ruin a trio,” Harry said darkly.

“So what, Harry, would you like me to go out with her and be miserable, is that what you’re suggesting?” Ron hissed, affronted. “Just to keep the golden trio going?”

 

“No, I’m not saying that I just…”  
“Sounded like that’s what you were saying,” Ron grabbed the book he had been reading and the scruffy notes he’d made and shoved them into his bag. “Not happening Harry, sorry. It’s about time we all did our own thing.”

“What do you mean by that?” Harry frowned.

“I just… nothing can stay so clean cut forever. Friendships end, people change and move on.”

“Are you saying you’ve outgrown us?” Harry scoffed.

“No, I’m not saying that at all, dickhead.”  


“Will you shut up?” The hiss floated through the book wall and Ron gave whoever it was an obscene hand gesture, even though they could not see it.

 

“I’m going to go,” Ron put his bag on his shoulder. “I’ll see you later?” He picked up his cloak from the back of the chair he’d been sitting on.  
“Yeah, I guess,” Harry watched him leave.

 

Outside in the corridor Ron had to stop and give his head a little clearing shake, staring down at the flagstone floor.

 

_He’s needed to know for ages and now you’ve told him. Only thing worse will be telling her._

 

Ron had meant it when he’d told Severus that he did not have a girlfriend. Nor did he want one on which to focus his need to give attention. He didn’t have a boyfriend either, which he noticed the man had mysteriously left out –considering what they then went on to do, Ron found it odd that Severus wouldn’t consider the possibility that he had a male partner. As it happened, Ron had never had one, only known that some men were every bit as pleasing to look at as women, and that really, he just had the best of both worlds by appreciating everybody, even if none of them appreciated him back. Except the one that was wrong for him.

 

With that sobering thought he set off down the corridor, cloak swinging from his hand, and he jogged down the staircase without really knowing where he was heading. It was a Friday afternoon and he had it off, and, shockingly, all of his essay work and spell practising was up-to-date. He had already revised DADA for an hour and it felt like he’d been thoroughly too academic for the past week. He needed a release. With a longing in his chest, he thought of what his first chosen release would be: Severus Snape in any which way. As that seemed unobtainable, Ron moved onto the second, which was Quidditch. It was November, and cold, but he had his cloak and a decent broom.

 

Not allowed to play on the house team any more due to their honorary status, Harry and Ron had taken to playing impromptu games against one another, just to get their fix. They had a lot more freedom than the other students and they pushed it to the very limit.

 

 _As sneaking out and getting drunk in the first place proved,_ Ron thought with a wry smile to himself as he cut across the entrance hall, heading for the open doors. The castle was quiet and his footsteps made too much noise for him to leave inconspicuously. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle suddenly, and he realised he was being watched.

 

Ron turned his head and locked eyes with the one person who could have lit his afternoon up. Severus Snape stopped and looked at him, one thin hand wrapped around a book tucked into his side, dark hair loose – _hey, he’s washed that_. Ron took in the pale skin and hungry eyes and smirked inwardly. He nearly fell over when Severus visibly swallowed, shot his eyes over to the entrance to the dungeons, and then looked back over at Ron. Too excited to be smug, Ron nearly fell over again in his haste to get to the stone archway, which Severus had already disappeared through.

 

 _Does he want me to go to his rooms?_ Ron looked around as he walked, but could see no sign of his Professor, and headed down the corridors that would take him to the office he had only ever graced when he was in trouble. But there was no indication that Snape was nearby. Wondering whether he’d missed him, Ron raised his fist and knocked twice on the door.

 

***

Severus pulled the door open quickly and stood back so Ron could pass him. What he was doing, inviting the redhead he’d so successfully avoided for the past week into his private living quarters, Severus couldn’t fathom.

 

_One bloody look from his eyes and I’m undone. This is unbelievable._

Severus closed the door and wondered if Ron noticed that his automatic locking and privacy spells re-activated as soon as the wood closed in the frame. But Ron simply turned around and looked at him, a slight smile curving up his delicious lips.

 

_No, no. He’s not delicious. He’s a bloody wretched creature determined to lure me into hell and leave me to burn and..._

“You don’t look very well,” Ron spoke, and lowered himself into the visiting chair in front of Severus’ desk.

“I’m in perfect health,” Severus said sharply, and walked to sit in his own seat, resting his elbows on the desk and his chin on locked fingers.

 

Silence descended upon them and Severus tried to remember his point in inviting Ron into his rooms.

 

_There wasn’t one. You just wanted to smell him. Fool._

***

Ron swallowed and looked around when Severus did not instantly speak to him, and tried to hide his confusion. He had expected to either be shouted at or pounced on, and there was no questioning which he would have preferred. But he was starting to think he might have even taken the shouting over the silence.

 

“Have you recovered from last week?” the low, velvety voice finally asked, and Ron almost jumped.

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine.”

 

Silence again. Ron tried to keep his smirk off his face but was losing.

  
“What’s amusing?”

“This is ridiculous,” Ron snorted, chuckling where he sat.

 

A dark glare met Ron’s eyes as he looked up from his knees, which he’d laughed to.

 

“It is!” Ron laughed. “Come on. You avoid me for a week, you refuse to spare me a second glance during that week, and now you make eyes at me in the bloody entrance hall, invite me into your office, and then you don’t speak to me and when you do you ask me the most stupid bloody question.”

“I wasn’t aware it was an unintelligent question to ask someone who has recently been ill how they are, apparently I’ve been out of social circulation for too long.”

“Ah, but, you’ve seen me since I was ill. Or was it just your way of asking me if your potion worked?”

 

Severus said nothing but continued to pierce him with his eyes.

 

“Your potion worked,” Ron said softly.

“I’m glad, Weasley.”  


Trying to keep the conversation polite, Ron ignored the fact he’d just been last-named. “I was worried you might have slipped something else in it.”  
“Oh please, covert poisoning really isn’t my choicest way of spending an evening.”

“And what is, wanking your students off whilst you’re drinking their blood?” Ron snorted, and he revelled in the way there was an angry flare in the onyx eyes.

 

_Am I trying to provoke him? Suppose I might be. Be a bit more interesting than this rubbish._

“I stand by what I said, you’re infuriating,” Severus regarded him with a look Ron had seen people give to the worst-off beggars on the street and bristled where he sat.

“Where do you get off looking at me like that?”

“Like what, Mr. Weasley?”  
“Like I’m scum?”

“Now now, Weasley, don’t go reading your own self-esteem issues in my facial expressions.”

“You know exactly how you were looking at me, or you wouldn’t have said that.”

 

Silence, again.

  
“Do you actually have anything to say to me… or do to me?” Ron got to his feet and picked up his bag and cloak once more. “If not, why the hell did you drag me down to this dump? I could be flying now.”

“It’s raining,” Severus frowned at him.

“And your point is?”

“Why would you fly in the rain when you have no cause?”  
“Er, because I enjoy flying,” Ron said to him incredulously.

“Well don’t,” Severus’ tone was sharp and Ron narrowed his eyes.

 

“And why not?” Ron hooked both of his hands around his bag strap.

“I wouldn’t think flying around and jeopardising your future risking accident is a very smart idea, Weasley.”

 

“Risking my future or your blood on tap?” Ron raised a challenging eyebrow and stalked close to the desk. “Look, _Snape_ , if you insist on using last names, you need to figure out what the hell you want from me. Nothing has changed from a week ago –I’m still willing, I’ve spent every single night in the past week falling asleep to the image of you rogering me senseless. And if you want to throw that away, then frankly, I think you’re the one who’s not very smart.”

 

“As much as that flatters to me to hear, _Weasley,_ maybe your time would be better spent finding someone else to, uh, roger you senseless, as you put it. Find yourself a nice boyfriend to skulk in dark corners with, instead of me.”

 

“But I don’t want some pathetic schoolboy,” Ron’s voice was steady but inside he was a ball of nervous fire, ready to crash and burn at any moment –and he surely would if Snape so much as breathed on him. “I want you.”

“Get out,” Severus rose to his feet and pointed to the door. “Now.”

“Sure you don’t want a bite to eat before I go?” Ron winked at him. “It’s been a week. If the call of my blood is that strong you must be going absolutely fucking mad.”

“LANGUAGE, WEASLEY, HOW MANY TIMES?!”

 

“And how many times do I have to tell you,” Ron was round the desk by that point, inching closer to his Professor with every word, having no idea where his courage was coming from but only hoping it did not desert him any point in the near future. “That it is pointless to fight this? You need my blood and I’m pretty damn convinced you could do with a good rogering yourself.”

 

Ron didn’t expect what happened then, and as he watched, he realised Severus probably hadn’t either. The tall, sober-faced man had burst into laughter, his face creasing with ease, eyes glittering in the sub-par lighting of his dungeon office. Ron observed him closely as his thin – _oh so talented-_ hands rose up to his face and carded through his clean, dark hair.

 

“What’s amusing?” Ron asked, in an accurate impression of the man himself.

“That you could presume to do that to me,” Severus looked sideways at him and was, much to Ron’s chagrin, still laughing, and he blushed slightly.

 

Severus seemed to realise his laughter had cut deeply and abruptly stopped and licked his lips, face returning to his usual mask of unaffected indifference. Ron knew, though, from his eyes –which he was quickly becoming a master of reading- that the man was sorry.

 

“I was not laughing at you specifically,” Severus said in a quiet voice, all traces of humour vanished.

“Then what?” Ron asked, equally quiet.

“You have now had the…pleasure? Of experiencing my sexual attention twice, Weasley… do you really think that I would do well as the submissive element of our... pairing?”

 

Ron thought on it, and realised that all of his fantasies involved Severus acting on him, fucking him, drinking from him, and everything else in between. Never the other way round.

 

“So I would never… be able to…” Ron swept his eyes awkwardly up and down Severus’ body in question.

“I can safely say never,” Severus sighed. “My… inhumanity has a lot to do with it.”

“So I would just be your sexual plaything, and blood donor?”

 

“Finally,” Severus let his eyes roll sarcastically heaven-ward. “The last hippogriff crosses the finish line.”

“But last week, behind that tapestry… you finished then and I know that was me, and my presence. I didn’t touch you but I know it was me that had you creaming your pants, Snape.”

 

They looked at each other then, and the rest of the office seemed to shrink away, leaving only the tiny part where they stood inches apart.

 

“I’m not going to deny what you saw with your own eyes,” Severus looked ashamedly at the floor.  
“Oh well, that’s a start,” Ron muttered. “Be the first bloody time.”  
“What are you blathering about now?”

“I can see what I’m doing to you,” Ron let his eyes linger over the pale, tired skin which held no luminance whatsoever. “I _feel_ the call like you do.”

 

“I can safely say you’re talking out of your rear end, Weasley, now get out of my damned office.”  
“You invited me in, so, no, I’m not leaving.”

“You’re not a vampire, that rule does not apply to annoying redheaded brats.”

“No, fine, I’m not a vampire,” Ron shrugged. “But I’m still not leaving.”

“I can forcibly remove you,” Severus sighed, and reached for his wand, but Ron spoke again and stopped him in his tracks.

  
“And I will just come back. I’ve had enough.” Ron drew a shuddering breath. “Either you grow a pair, Snape, and acknowledge what you want, or I’m going to Dumbledore and telling him everything.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” Severus thundered immediately.

“Wouldn’t I?” Ron glared at him. “Wouldn’t I, the poor, set about student who’s being stalked by his Professor for blood, was sucked off, molested by him?”

“And all Dumbledore would have to do would be to Legilimens you and see that you were lying –he would see your issued invitation. I hope you’ve not been idiotic enough to assume the man doesn’t know of my condition?” Severus sneered. “And then what else would he see, once he’d delved through the lies? All your fantasies about me? What do you suppose the old codger would make of that?”

 

“But, still, he’d see you doing it. Last week you were pretty determined nobody could know, that I was illegal and you were breaking the law. What’s changed now? And, I’m pretty sure that old codger would want to know why the hell you haven’t obliviated me yet.”

“You tell _anybody_ about this and you will regret the day you were born, Weasley.”

 

“You don’t scare me,” Ron said firmly.

“Then I don’t know what I should do to MAKE you scared of me,” Snape bellowed at him. “Shouting obviously doesn’t fucking work, neither does sinking my teeth into you, I’m beginning to wonder what it would take for you be as repulsed by me as you should be.”

 

_And all I can think of as he stands there and screams at me is how fucking sexy he looks when he’s doing it. If a little psychotic. I’m sure I don’t look too fabulous either, though._

 

“PAY ATTENTION! YOU CAN’T EVEN KEEP YOUR TINY LITTLE ATTENTION SPAN ON ME FOR MORE THAN TWO SECONDS AT A TIME!”

 

There was real anger and shaking in Severus’ tone by that point and Ron began to search for a way to calm the situation down before one of them went too far.

 

“I’ll go,” he said finally. “But please just think about why you’re bothering to bellow at me.”

“Because you’re an arrogant little shit who thinks he can abuse his best friend’s status to earn himself a free ride to nothing but glorified sexual slavery.”

“Wait, who’s the slave?” Ron swallowed.

 

“Me,” Severus exhaled and dropped onto the small sofa by the fire which he could not remember pacing to.

“You?” Ron asked dubiously, sauntering over. “Why you?”

“Up until a week ago, I could drink from anyone I wanted. Anyone at all. And now none of them taste as good as you do. And none of them _feel_ as good as you do. And none of them have the same scent as you do. They’re _not_ you and none of them have issued the invitation you have.”

 

Ron instantly regretted the way he’d goaded Severus, seeing him sit brokenly on the sofa as he did. With a swallow he crouched down next to the small coffee table and looked up into onyx eyes.

 

“I’ll go, Severus. But I want you to think about this. We have months left together in this castle and if you want me, eventually you’ll have me. So why don’t you just stop denying what you want. I’m willing. I’ll be your… I’ll do anything. I can live with ‘just’ being fucked as long as I can do other things to you.”

“You are an eighteen-year-old impetuous fool,” Severus looked at him desperately.

“But I could be _your_ eighteen-year-old impetuous fool,” Ron whispered, and got to his feet. He walked to the door and opened it.

“I don’t need one,” Severus answered him coldly.

“You’re lying to yourself,” Ron sighed, and left.

 

***

Ron hadn’t been able to get the argument off his mind all afternoon. On closing the door to the office all he had wanted to do was jump straight back through it –not to argue more, not to fight his corner, but to simply offer a shoulder to the vampire who had looked so sad as he’d left.

 

And that vampire still looked very sad and melancholy as he sat at the staff dinner table, slowly eating.

 

_He still eats human food, too. I’ll have to ask him about that. I wonder what it does… if it digests. Do vampires still go to the toilet?_

 

Ron was jerked out of his highly-inappropriate-whilst-eating-curry thoughts by Hermione dropping into the empty space on the house bench next to him.

“Hello Ron! Haven’t seen you all afternoon, where have you been?”

“Around,” Ron smiled at her. “What’s the matter, you look all flushed, ‘Mione?”

“I’m… just going to do this. Will you come with me to Hogsmeade next week, the Christmas trip?”

 

Ron had forgotten all about his fight with Harry in the mire following the bigger one with Severus –with a shake of his head he realised he hadn’t had a successful day at all. And with Hermione’s eyes so wide and twinkling, he didn’t expect it to get any better.

 

“Sure, that sounds fun,” Ron gave her a smile. “But, just as friends yeah?”

“Of course,” Hermione nodded.

“Then it sounds great,” Ron nodded at her.

“Oh, I’m so glad you said yes!” She breathed, and then, without Ron really knowing why, she threw her arms around him from the side and did not let go, and kissed him on the cheek.

“Look, Hermione, I don’t want to upset you-”

“It’s just about time we did this Ron, it’s been so long and your mother keeps telling me I have to bully you into it and I didn’t want to but she was right, really, wasn’t she?”

“No, Hermione, listen-”

 

Hermione kissed his face again and Ron wondered what the hell had come over her –she normally detested such public displays of attention in the Great Hall and would openly comment on those doing so. But there she was, her arms wrapped around him, kissing his cheek. And there was someone Ron really didn’t want to see that. He managed to look at the staff table and was met, as he had instinctively known he would be, with a glaring pair of black eyes.

 

Caught between Hermione’s arms and Severus’ stare, Ron crossed into the realm of just-too-muchery. Breaking free of her light cage, Ron got to his feet and swallowed. “No, Hermione, this isn’t a date.”

“What?” She looked up at him.

“I don’t want… this isn’t the place,” people were starting to stare at them now he had stood up.

“Oh,” she looked into his face then, and her eyes widened with horror. “Have I… I’ve made an… Oh.”

 

Ron wasn’t going to make the time old mistake of saying ‘it’s not you, it’s me’, he’d seen too many scars on his brothers to repeat their foolishness. So he simply just said, “I’m sorry,” and turned and strode away from his food, and out of the Great Hall, where it seemed like every eye followed him.

 

He had no idea where he was walking, but he was glad that the front doors were open, and he stomped into the rain without caring he had no cloak. He walked a little way along the path around the side of the building and stopped, tucking himself against the wall in the darkness. The rain completely missed him there, as would anybody who came looking for him.

 

***

Severus set down his fork and tried to quell the jealous fire which had sparked in his stomach when the Granger girl had thrown her arms around Ron and kissed his cheek.

 

_I have no stake over him and he is free to kiss whom he wishes._

 

Severus rose from the table and exited the hall, heart thrumming along with what might have been nerves.

 

_He is not mine to get jealous over. We have nothing._

 

_Not for his lack of trying, of course._

He walked the path to his dungeon offices, eyes sweeping about, seeking a glimpse of red hair.

 

_Why on earth would he choose to come and seek comfort from me? I am not a comforting person. I am not a nice person. He knows that._

_And yet he’s willing. I wish I knew why._

 

Severus unlocked the door to his office, now fighting bitter disappointment that Ronald Weasley was not loitering outside his door, begging entrance and comfort.

 

_Do not be disappointed purely because he is stronger than you are._

 

Severus collapsed down onto his sofa and hit the arm with his fist, the other hand coming up to smooth fingertips over his lips. His forearms crawled alive with thousands of tiny firepricks; it seemed to be his own extra special form of torment for when he wanted to do nothing more than sink his teeth into Ron’s neck.

 

_He’s right. I will bow to this sooner or later; I can’t stand this without ripping my own skin off._


	4. Whatever Gets You Through Today

Ron shivered slightly, walking up the path to the castle. November had bled into December with no let up on the bad weather and the temperature had only dipped further. He was wrapped in his scarf and cloak but was totally frozen as he walked back from Herbology, as he had been for a week, alone.

 

_I don’t get why he’s sided with her. I wasn’t rude, or nasty, I just made a decision. I don’t understand people._

 

Ron swallowed and walked up the castle steps, which were slippery with ice. Concentrating on skirting round the worst patches, he kept his eyes on the concrete, hands out ready to brace himself should he fall. The ice was early and therefore the usual charms hadn’t been cast on the steps and Ron had already gone over on his way down them. With a relieved breath he reached the top step and finally looked up, but his heart pounded out an instant tattoo when he saw who was standing in the open castle doors, watching him. He would have liked to have remained to see the view, but his feet had other ideas as they found a patch of ice he’d missed and disappeared from beneath him.

 

He landed ungracefully on his backside with his legs splayed in front of him, a loud ‘whoomph’ of air gusting from his lungs as he lost his breath, coccyx stinging as the fall resounded through his body.

 

_Oh, wonderful._

He was trying to gather his wits when a hand extended to him and Ron looked first at it, then up the black-clad arm which it belonged to, and finally into the face of the hand’s owner.

“I’m not going to stand here all day, Weasley,” Severus raised an eyebrow and sneered.

Ron reached up and grabbed the hand, and groaned as the man pulled him off the floor.

 

“Thank you,” Ron said politely, brushing wetness off the seat of his cloak, face burning with embarrassment.

“Of course,” Severus regarded him with closed eyes and turned away.

 

Ron was left smarting at the way he just turned and walked off. There had been nothing for a week since the meeting in Severus’ office and it was driving Ron insane. He had spent a long time debating with himself over that week quite how disturbed it must make him to crave someone drinking his blood, but he always came back to the same conclusion: he didn’t want just _anybody_ drinking his blood. _Or touching my cock._

 

Shaking his head slightly, Ron stepped into the entrance hall and made his way up the marble staircase, wishing there would be a point in chasing Severus and forcing him to act. Although Ron had seen that goading the man always brought out a reaction in him, he was loathe to do so after their last meeting, which had ended on such a depressing note.

 

_Well. Let’s be fair. They’ve all ended on depressing notes._

 

Ron was wandering aimlessly back to the tower, where he was barely welcome. He could remember a time when if he fell out with Harry, he could go and hang out with Dean, Seamus and Neville. But they were no longer there as his safety net, and it made him feel a little guilty about all the times before that he had used them in such a way. He slowed his pace along the third floor corridor and groaned as his body began to ache. _Nothing like a fall on cold hard concrete to fuck you up._

 

Not bothering to stifle his yawn, Ron’s mouth was open when out of nowhere his upper arm was grabbed in a tight grip and he was yanked sideways into a disused classroom. His yelp ricocheted up the corridor but cut off when a hand covered his mouth.

 

“Gods above are you ever quiet?” Severus’ tone sent a tingle up and down Ron’s spine and he turned, looking hopefully at the man who had, after a week of nothing, touched him twice in the last five minutes.

“No,” Ron muttered thickly, anxiously licking the taste of Severus’ hand from the corners of his mouth.

“Well, keep quiet for now,” Severus warned him, then grabbed one of Ron’s cold hands and led him through the clear classroom to a concealed space at the back. With fascination Ron watched as the man tapped his wand against the wall and a door appeared.

 

When that door was open and Ron walked through it, he saw nothing of consequence, a windowless stone room with only a few candle brackets on the walls. Severus closed the door and lit the well-worn stubs, which flickered to life and made the room awash with amber.

 

“You look awful,” Ron commented, and chucked his bag in a corner, nerves jangling, but he was too excited at the prospects that could come of being in a hidden room with Severus Snape to pay them any heed.

“I know,” Severus said softly, keeping his distance, though Ron noticed how his hands half-clenched, almost as if he wanted to throttle his company.

“What’s with the hand-clenching?” Ron blinked at him.

 

He did not expect the soft, tortured groan which came from the man’s mouth, or the way he sagged against the wall. “I can’t hold out any more. I have to have you.”

“Is something wrong?” Ron took a step closer.

“Yes,” Severus’ voice was strangled. “I can’t bear this any more.”

“Bear what?” Ron asked, nonplussed, and watched as Severus ripped back the sleeves of his robes, revealing pale forearms adorned with what looked like deep scratches or cuts.

“W-what?” Ron reached forward and pulled one of the arms closer. From the angles he could tell they were self-inflicted. “Severus…”

 

“I know!” He burst out. “I did those in my sleep! Can you believe that?”

“No,” Ron said hotly. “Because you told me you barely sleep. Why are you… harming yourself?”  
“I’m not doing this on purpose, you lunatic?” Severus scathed at him.

“Well it looks that way,” Ron dropped the wrist he was holding. “You know, that whole self-harm thing is more befitting to someone of my age, why they give us all those bullshit lessons on expressing ourselves-”

“It’s you!” Severus cried. “When I don’t have you, this feeling in my arms, like they’re on fire, they burn all the time. I don’t understand it. But it’s driving me insane. I managed to get some sleep in the day on Sunday… and when I woke up I’d done this to myself, seemingly I’d gone berserk without the self control to stop.”

  
“You’re in pain when you don’t drink from me?” Ron asked quietly, and Severus gave a terse nod.

“It’s worse when you’re around and apparently touching you. I’ve just pulled you up off the floor and it’s almost unbearable… I need…”

“Okay,” Ron said softly, forgetting distance as he wrapped his arms around the older man, raising one hand and pushing it against the base of his skull, guiding it to his shoulder, just as he would for anyone else he was comforting. He didn’t remember it was his Professor, a man who had rejected him for a week, and seemingly didn’t want anything to do with him.

 

To both of their surprise, Severus did not pull back and remove himself from the comforting arms; he stayed and quietly took more solace from them than he knew he should.

 

“We’ll figure something out,” Ron whispered. “Just… just don’t do that to yourself again.”

 

Ron tried not to shiver with thrilled delight as Severus’ arms came up behind his back and rested there, almost as if they were sharing a cuddle. But then there was a soft kiss on his neck and Ron understood, tilting his head off to the side. As usual he barely felt the teeth entering his skin and all that came was the enthralling rush and the almost instant reaction in his groin.

 

For the first time Ron realised Severus was making noise as he drank, a sort of relieved groan which was deep and throaty. It only served to make Ron harder and he pressed his hips forward to gain some friction, which Severus granted him by grasping one hand over his arse and pressing him forward even more.

 

But it was over too soon, because Severus detached from his neck and looked into his eyes with a swallow.

“Better?” Ron asked.

Nodding, Severus closed his eyes and rejoiced in the burning flowing through his body, and the tingling in his arms faded. “Oh god, _so_ much better...”

 

Ron heaved a sigh of relief and threw caution to the wind as he raised one hand and brought it up to stroke Severus’ cheek. His thumb stroked gently and when Severus did not push the hand off, Ron moved a little closer. Severus reached into his robes for the replenishing potion vial, which Ron took a mouthful of obediently, without comment.

 

“Have you fed at all?” Ron asked. “Since we last…”  
“Of course I have,” Severus replied. “I had to. But it didn’t stop the burning.”

“It’s constant?”

“It’s gone now,” Severus muttered bitterly.

“So it really is me.”

 

A brief nod was all the answer Ron got. They stood in each other’s personal space and Ron realised his erection was pressing into Severus’, albeit through many different layers of clothing. His daring made Ron reach between them and grasp through the black, repressive robes, and he wondered if he’d really lost his mind when he began to stroke.

 

But Severus did not push him off and Ron pressed his advantage, moving closer and gripping tighter at the same time. He captured the man’s thin lips with his own and kissed him gently, keeping his eyes open to gauge the reaction.

 

Severus had his eyes closed, and Ron noted the way that his dark eyelashes were long, and the way they fluttered almost girlishly as the kiss deepened. And just like Severus had groaned when he drank, Ron was surprised to hear him groaning into the kiss.

 

Settling into a rhythm, Ron was thoroughly enjoying himself, as his straining cock proved. And he didn’t see any signs that Severus was enjoying it any less, so he continued, and positively relished the fact that Severus suddenly gripped him tight and melted properly into his arms.

 

“I want you to…” the whisper met Ron’s ears and he strained them, guessing at the end of the sentence. “Need you to…”  
“To what?” Ron felt an idiot needing clarification –but if Severus was expecting miracles then he was stupid, it was, after all, the first time Ron had been with a man.

“I want you to suck me off,” there was a change in that tone and it electrified Ron to the tips of his hair.

“Okay,” Ron kissed him again, sucking on Severus’ bottom lip as he pulled away. “If you’re sure that’s what you want.”

 

There was a muttered stream of curses and Ron could have sworn he caught something about ‘need’ but he ignored it and sank to his knees, body aching after his earlier wallop on the ground. He fingered the hem of Severus’ robes, wondering if he should undo them, but then just flipped them over his head.

 

_Fucking hate robes. They’re like bloody dresses._

 

But he was spared working out the logistics by Severus suddenly pulling away, dragging the heavy material of the robe over his head and sending his hair into disarray. He watched as the man unbuttoned them from the waist down, and then sank down in one of the corners before undoing the trousers he wore beneath them. Ron gratefully walked over on his knees and sat on his heels before the man, biting his lip furtively.

 

“Are you actually nervous for once?” Severus asked him, regarding him with narrowed eyes.

“Maybe,” Ron knew his face was burning. “I’ve never done this before.”  
“Shut up,” Severus reached forward and grabbed him by his school uniform jumper, crashing their lips together in a painful connection of teeth.

 

Ron opened his mouth and groaned when Severus’ tongue slid in it. “You’re so good at that,” he breathed, letting his head fall down to rest on the still-dressed chest. He remembered the request made of him and sat back again. “I’m sorry if this is shit.”

 

Severus said nothing, only looked ashamedly away and Ron ducked his head before he lost his nerve. He had never seen so much of the man he’d been fantasising about for the last few weeks, and now it seemed as though they were cutting straight to the chase. Not stupid enough to complain, Ron peeled back the edges of the trousers and nosed gently at the plain black underwear he found beneath it. He pressed a kiss to the swollen flesh through them before dragging them back, and releasing the erection to the room. He worked both trousers and underwear downward for better access.

 

As soon as his fingers were on the silken flesh, there was groaning above him. Taking heart in that, Ron looked at what he’d uncovered slyly, not wanting to embarrass the older man who was clearly torn about what was happening.

 

 _He asked,_ Ron reminded himself. _So maybe he’s finally given in_.

 

That thought bolstered him and he reached forward and awkwardly placed a kiss to the reddened tip, darting out his tongue. Finding it surprisingly tasteless, he licked again and took a sharp intake of breath when there was a louder groan above him.

 

_Is that right or wrong? RIGHT OR WRONG? Fuck. I’m fucked._

As though Severus had heard his mental doubting, Ron felt a re-assuring hand on his hair and then heard a soft voice filter down to him.

“Just do what you like.”  
“I don’t know what to do,” Ron cringed at the admission.

“Do what you think would feel good…”

 

***

_Dear God why, why do these things happen to me? He has no idea. He’s clearly terrified of doing this wrong. This was a mistake._

 

Severus opened his mouth to tell the redhead not to bother, but at that moment lips closed around the tip of his erection and shaking fingers prised it back from his body, causing his prick to stiffen considerably. Just the wet heat made him want to come, to force his seed down the waiting throat which he’d been drinking from just minutes before.

 

“Like that,” he encouraged, head tilting back to lean on the wall, eyes focused down at the head of flaming hair. “Oh Merlin yes…”

 

It was clumsy and unrefined, and Severus had certainly had better, but the way Ron’s tongue dragged around his foreskin was almost enough to bring the fire back in his arms. Severus groaned incoherently and tried to arch his hips, although sitting down it did not work. He felt two warm finger spans settle across his pelvis, holding him in place, and his cock slid a little deeper into Ron’s mouth.

“That’s good… just like that… suck a little harder… oh…”

 

Gasping, Severus tried to ignore the fact he was lecturing a student in the art of fellatio. It didn’t help that the more he instructed the better Ron got, forming their relationship as master and student even further.

 

Ron was lapping at the underside of his cock gently and it felt heavenly.

 

_This is disgusting._

 

Severus growled at the words he didn’t want to accept and Ron froze, obviously thinking that the sound had been in negative response to his actions.

“No, carry on… please gods don’t stop… need to…want to come in your mouth.”

 

_Want to shut the fuck up, why the hell am I saying all of these things when this is so…_

 

“Ohohohohohoh,” he gasped loudly as one of the hands came off his hip and went straight to his sac, fondling them gently whilst he was sucked. “Ron, please, I never last when…”

 

It was as though he were silenced, because Ron carried on rolling his balls and suckling away, making indecent slurping noises and groaning sporadically. His urges took over and Severus grabbed Ron’s head and held it in place, even though the redhead showed no sign of moving away.

“That’s right, suck me down,” the hiss escaped Severus’ lips before he could stop it, and then a torrent of words broke forth. “Take it all down, I want it inside your virgin throat… suck it… harder… fuck yes! Like that. Ahhgods. Take it like the good little slut you are.”

 

Hating how the words tumbled out of his mouth, Severus didn’t really notice how Ron responded to them, or how low his lean frame had gotten to the floor –he didn’t see how his knees had spread as he leant forward and how his assailant was almost humping the floor with want.

 

“Make me come,” Severus hissed, biting hard into his lip. “Make me come and lick it off. That’s what you’ve wanted, isn’t it? To taste me?”

 

A muffled groan rose up from the redhead and Severus, on top of the feelings of pure desire in his groin, felt sick in his stomach, although his mind filled with filthy images of all the things he could do with this eager, hormone-driven young thing in front of him.

 

And it was his mind, focussing in of the image of penetrating that body, which pushed him over the edge.  
“Stop, I’m going to-”

 

The warning came too late as he bucked and cried out, losing himself in a swirl of heat and gentle lapping against his cock and he groaned again when he realised that Ron was licking away his come with each fresh spurt. _And the little bastard is enjoying it._ Severus looked down with his mouth hanging open as he heard the first appreciative groan, and then felt a swipe of tongue, and then yet another groan.

 

The thought of Ron enjoying his expulsion was too much. The pleasure was doused with ice and Severus roughly pushed the redhead by the shoulders, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the side.

 

Quickly re-arranging himself, ignoring the mess Ron had caused, Severus jumped to his feet and swallowed.

 

“Was I that shit?” The whisper floated up to him, and he saw Ron obviously refusing to look at him, face turned to the dusty floor of the small chamber, stoically still kneeling, though his knees must have been painful.

 

“This was wrong,” Severus said. “And it will never happen again, do you understand me, Weasley?”  
“I just sucked your cock and we’re back to Weasley,” Ron’s voice cracked with anger. “I can’t believe you.”

“Believe that this is the last time,” Severus spat, and pulled open the door.

 

He closed it to something that sounded remarkably like ‘you said that the last time’ and screamed inwardly.

 

***

Ron flopped onto his back and looked at the ceiling of the small room, licking the inside of his mouth, tasting Severus with every movement of his tongue. His body ached from his fall and the way he had knelt for so long, sucking at his Professor.

 

_And now he’s gone again. God I must have been really fucking shit. Stupid, I s’pose… thinking I could please him. Fuck._

***

The next morning Ron sat alone at the Gryffindor table, morosely picking through his breakfast. He really fancied none of it but it was at least something to _do._ He had his head leaning on his hand as he chased some baked beans around his plate, whilst he surreptitiously flicked his eyes to the staff table. Severus was there, reading the paper whilst he ate, looking fully charged and healthy again.

 

_Yes. Wonderful. I spend an afternoon on the floor missing him and he’s fucking fine. Must be some damn good blood. It better be after all this._

 

There was a great screeching then and Ron didn’t bother to look up as the post arrival was heralded by flapping wings and ducking students. It was a surprise, therefore, when an owl landed only a millimetre from his plate, its wing dipping into the bean juice. It squawked at him and he realised with a jolt that it was his family’s owl.

 

_Oh sweet Jesus what’s that? Oh no it’s a-_

Ron didn’t have time to run. The letter burst off the owl’s leg, which took flight and clipped him round the head as it did so, probably imparting a more personal message from his mother than the howler she’d sent ever could. The letter burned a furious red and before he could move the shrieking sound of his angry mother burst forth into the hall.

  
“You ridiculous child! Are you so stupid you can’t recognise a good thing when you see it?” The letter screamed, and everyone had turned to stare, including most of the staff table. “That girl has been good to you for years and now you pull this! What are you playing at? You will never find another woman willing to take you on so you had better fix this, Ronald Bilius Weasley, or I’m going to march up there and fix it for you! I ALREADY HAD MOCK-UP WEDDING INVITATIONS!”

 

Ron’s mouth fell open with fury but he knew there was no point in fighting with the letter.

 

“You need to wake up and smell the roses, young man. I’m disgusted with you and I do NOT understand why you would choose to ruin your future like this after everything you have been through with the girl!”

 

The letter gathered sound and strength and bellowed the last words:

 

“Fix it, or you’re not welcome home for Christmas!”

 

The letter burst into flame and the ashes dropped into his breakfast. All around him titters broke out amongst the younger students and Ron swallowed shakily, wanting nothing more than for the ground to open up and swallow him.

 

Ignoring everyone, he rose to his feet and walked numbly from the hall, the sounds of his mother’s shouting reverberating in his ears. He just didn’t get why everyone expected him to go along with their wishes. It wasn’t good enough, apparently, to say that he wouldn’t have been happy with Hermione, that his life would have been unsatisfying. Nobody seemed to care about that point, only that he had upset _her._ As usual, he didn’t seem to matter over everybody else.

 

_Well what the fuck about me?! Why the bloody hell is it that I’m the only one around here who can’t say what they fucking think? She does all the fucking time! She tells everyone they’re stupid, or treats them like it, acts like she’ sooo much better… fuck it all to hell and back. Harry can say what he thinks because he’s so put upon and the darling of the bloody wizarding world. This is just bollocks! Absolute fucking bollocks._

Ron knew he was getting angrier with every thought and his hands curled into tight fists as he stormed along the nearest corridor he could find, which happened to be that down to the dungeons. He was so very ready to punch something by the time he reached a gruesome looking statue of a banshee, which he realised he had never seen before. He’d never been this deep into the labyrinth of corridors beneath the castle. It was cold and he shivered, but his eyes fell upon a likely alcove and he slid into it, glad of the tiny stone bench provided.

 

Once seated he let his face fall forward into his hands and took a deep, shaky breath.

 

“Are you alright?” asked a low, silky voice, and Ron jumped, looking up into Severus’ face with shocked eyes.

“Bloody marvellous,” Ron choked, and replaced his face back in his hands, staring with wide eyes down to the flagstone floor. “Do you have to fucking sneak up on me like that?”

 

Nothing could have surprised him more than what happened then. Severus sat down on the bench next to him, close enough that their sides and thighs were touching, and put an arm around his shoulders. Ron only remained shocked for a moment before he leaned into the comforting gesture and sighed.

 

They sat in silence for a while and Ron found his head filling with questions.

“Why are you here?” he whispered, well aware his voice sounded pitifully miserable.

“Would you be content with the answer ‘I haven’t got a fucking clue’?”

“At least you’re being honest with me,” Ron breathed.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” Severus said quietly, and tightened his grip.

“Will anyone find us down here?”

“Unlikely. It’s awful past the level of the Slytherin dorms.”

“Good. About… yesterday…”

“For me to leave you like that was unforgivable.” There was an almost fearful tinge in Severus’ tone which Ron thought did not suit him at all.

 

“So why did you? It was like a kick in the balls, just so you know.” Ron finally looked up at him.

“I apologise,” Severus murmured, and then in an action which sent Ron’s heart fluttering, pressed his lips softly to the redhead’s brow.

“Oh god, that feels amazing,” Ron couldn’t hold back the praise. “Would you do it again if I asked?”

 

Severus repeated the action and couldn’t help a small smile when Ron moaned.

“And if it’s any consolation at all, I did not leave you because I was passing comment on your skill… it was because I was…”  
“Terrified.”

“The Slytherin in me dictates that I don’t admit that.”

“The Gryffindor in _me_ makes me reckless enough to tell you you’re speaking out of your arse,” Ron smirked, loving the way Severus’ arm felt so heavy and warm around his shoulders.

 

Ron slid his own arm around Severus’ waist. Joined together they would have been hard pressed to find an adjective for their position other than comfortable.

 

“Can I ask you some questions about… what you are?” Ron asked softly.

“Yes.”

“How long have you been this way?”  
“Three years.”

“And you won’t age?”

“No.”

“So you’re frozen at what… thirty-five, thirty-six?”

“Thirty-five. But, if it makes you feel better, my birthday is January 9th and I should be coming up to my thirty-ninth.”

“Well, you have the perfect excuse to stay below forty forever. Some people would kill for that, you know,” Ron snorted.

 

Severus stayed silent and looked at the wall opposite.

  
“So… how have you changed? What’s different in you that makes you a vampire?”

“The fact I need other’s blood to function. I could survive on human food for around two days before I felt the effects… but it’s blood that truly fuels me.”  
“About the food… does your body still work in the same way? If you eat, does it digest?”  
“Really, you’re asking me about my toilet habits?” Severus snorted.

“Just answer the question.”  
“Brat.”

“Vampire.”  
“Yes, if I eat, it’ll digest, I still have basic sanitary needs.”  
“Sounds a bit shit if you ask me.”

“It is.”

 

“So what would happen if you were hit by sunlight?” Ron asked airily, hoping it masked the fear in his voice.

“We don’t melt,” Severus rolled his eyes. “Though the books say we do. No. If I were to be hit by direct sunlight, I would fall into a catatonic state of sleep. And because of that, I would not be awake to feed on blood, and therefore, if I did not wake up in time, I would die.”

“But you’re immortal?”

“I suppose there are many senses of that word,” Severus mused. “In that, no human force –muggle or wizard- can kill us, then yes, I suppose we are immortal. But where the elements come into play, then no, we are not. The sunlight will kill us inadvertently, as I’ve detailed.”

 

“What if you were alive but not eating?”

“Trust me, if I were alive and a vampire, I’d be feeding. There’s no way you can refuse the call, even if you were bent on self-destruction. Only the power of the sun is enough to knock us out and cause our eternal… submission, if you like.”

 

“I think I’d prefer it if you just melted,” Ron whispered.

“I will grant you, it’d probably be easier,” Severus laughed without humour.

“And what about love? And sex? And relationships?” Ron pressed on. “Where do they come into this?”  
“Cross-racially? They don’t,” Severus said with a steely tone which Ron could not miss.

“But between vampires?”

“Many vampires live happy lives together.”

 

“You said you take potions and stuff to halt the sun’s effect on you. Does it have that effect on you even though you’re here, now, below the ground?”

“At first it was very hard to fight,” Severus remembered. “Being constantly drowsy only makes you more tired. But now I can fight it, chemically aided, of course. Albus researched the potions I take to keep me viable for work.”

“And by work you don’t just mean screaming your head off at poor unsuspecting first years…” Ron stated.

“No. Not then. But now… it’s just the first years.”  


“Here,” Ron said suddenly, and upturned his wrist. “Drink. Please.”

“We can’t, not here,” Severus’ voice rose in alarm.  
“Nothing else,” Ron whispered. “Just drink from me. You’ve never done it from there and I… want to be sure you’re getting what you need. I’m not going to let you gouge your own skin off.”

“I am sorry I showed you that,” Severus took the wrist in his hands and kissed it.

“I fell asleep last night with that image burned into my eyelids,” Ron shuddered. “You will _never_ let it get that bad again, do you understand me?”

 

Ron’s tone was heavy with commandment and he knew he might well be pushing his luck far too far. But he couldn’t deny the way he felt so hideous about what he’d seen, the way his blood, or the lack thereof, had caused a grown being to do such harm to themselves. It truly made him sick to his stomach.

 

And Ron thought maybe Severus understood that, because he kissed the wrist he held gently for a second time and whispered, “I promise I will come to you.”

“Good,” Ron breathed.

 

“May I ask you a question?” Severus cocked his head slightly.

“Yes.”

“Is there nothing with Granger? Or anyone else?”  
“I told you,” Ron looked at him. “No. There is nobody else.”

“And you… are you truly, ah, indifferent, I believe that is how we described it?”

“I am… but as my… rubbish skills yesterday will have told you, I’ve never been with a man like this before.”  
“But you have with a woman?”

“Yes.” He had never admitted that before, to anybody.

 

Ron noticed how all of Severus’ questions were infinitely more personal than his own had been, but if it made the man more likely to continue their trysts, Ron would answer anything he asked.

 

“Why, are you jealous?” Ron smiled wryly.

“What would you think of me if I said yes?”

“I’d fall off the bench and land on my arse again.”

“Would you like a cushion?”  
“Oh, come on, really, jealous of me?” Ron scoffed. “Severus, please.”

 

“Why?” Severus asked. “Why me?”

“That’s a daft question.”

“Why on earth?”

“You think I parade myself for more than one vampire a week?” Ron frowned. “Think I’ve known this sort of…” _Pleasure? Desire? Lust?_ “Feeling before you? I haven’t.”  
“You are young.”

“Well you’ve hardly got a bloody Disability Carpet, Severus.”

“Thank Godric; have you ever travelled by carpet? Utterly vomit inducing. Whoever on earth decided they were a safe means of travel for the elderly needs a good swift kick in the sac.”

 

Ron cracked a smile, but realised Severus was still holding his wrist and had not drunk. He waved it persistently and caught an onyx eye in his blue gaze. “Drink, Severus.”

 

“As you wish.” Those three words made Ron tremble and he was able to watch that time, as the fangs pierced his skin and sank deep within him, and the feeling at his pulse point was beautiful. A soft, washing feeling as the blood was sucked out, causing lazy tendrils of pleasure to creep around his arm like a vine, up into his shoulder and spreading into his chest.

 

“Gods, that’s just…. Almost better than the neck, because I can watch it,” Ron breathed, and his mouth fell open with a gasp as Severus looked him in the eye, his mouth still to the upturned wrist, teeth lodged deep within.

 

The reaction wasn’t as instant as when Severus drank from his neck, but in his underwear Ron felt his erection gather strength, and he was sad but understanding when Severus pulled his head back.

“Why don’t you leave holes?” Ron squinted at his wrist, looking at the entry point.

 

“Vampires are largely magical creatures, though you can find muggles who have been turned. Our fangs are somewhat like… Well. Imagine that wall over there was fake,” Severus nodded at the corridor wall. “If you were to walk up to it, and put your hand to what you thought was the wall, it would slice straight through it, yes?”

 

Ron gave a nod.

 

“Well, our teeth treat flesh like a fake wall. We slide through without consequence, take the sustenance we need, and there is a wound, but our magic causes it to heal before it is an issue. We slide through so easily there is never bruising.”

“Useful,” Ron laughed.

“You could say that.”

 

“How do you feel, having had me two days running?” Ron asked curiously.

Severus took a mostly superfluous inhalation of air and broadened his shoulders. “Like I could scale the building.”  
“That’d be a sight.”

“And how do you feel? There is a difference between neck and wrist donation points, it’s slower from the wrist.”  
“It felt very different, not as arousing…” Ron chewed on his lip. “For some reason it almost felt more… giving, doing it that way. Because I didn’t get anything major in return.”

 

Severus reached for the vial of potion again and Ron drank once more, ignoring the iron taste.

 

A bell rang above them in the castle and Severus got to his feet instantly. “I have a lesson to teach. And you have somewhere to be.”

“Charms,” Ron made a face, and got to his feet.

 

“Well… I’m glad you are alright.”

“Severus?” Ron beseeched, as the raven-haired man turned away from him.

“Yes?”

 

Ron stepped forward as they were still concealed within the alcove and kissed him then, so softly it mightn’t have been a kiss at all. But both of them felt it to their very cores.

 

“So what are we… you didn’t have to come after me today.”  
“No, I did not.”  
“So, why did you? Was it the howler?”

“I was worried for you.”

“And the drinking, and the way we sat?”

“I don’t know the answers to what you’re asking me,” Severus said awkwardly, very aware of the way his nose bumped against Ron’s as they stood.

 

“Still?” Ron murmured. “Look. I’m sorry, if I overstepped a boundary yesterday. If I did something wrong. I can work on it.”

“If I remember rightly, I was the one that requested your oral attention,” Severus whispered.  
“And then you legged it,” Ron challenged. “Please, Severus. I can’t keep this up, not knowing…”  
“But I do not know which answers to give you.”

 

“Well, look. I just want… my chance to do yesterday over. You say I can never be more than the submissive, and yesterday I stepped into that role. You guided me and if you didn’t notice I was ready to burst.”

“How many times, I did not leave due to what you have assumed was an inherent lack of skill on your behalf,” Severus growled. “I was just so ashamed that I had succumbed to you.”

 

“And will you do it again?” Ron asked.  
“Run, or succumb?”

Ron kissed him, “Succumb.”

 

“I would like to.”

 

The admission swum in the air and Ron felt the joy rise within him, bubbling in his veins like unhindered euphoria. He threw his arms around the man properly and squeezed.

 

“But as to whether I do or not…”  


The euphoria was shattered to pieces as quickly as it had arrived. Ron took a step back. “Fine, Severus. I will make this very, very easy for you. Meet me tonight, at eleven, in the Room of the Requirement. You know where that is?”

 

There was a brusque nod.

 

“Meet me there. And if you do, there are no more questions. This is happening. If you do not, don’t seek me, or my blood out again. Is that fair?”

“You know I’ll come,” Severus whispered desperately.

“I’m not so sure you will,” Ron swallowed. “Prove me wrong. Please. Prove me wrong.”


	5. Set Me Off

Severus poured another glass of whiskey and watched as the golden liquid flowed over the ice. He knew he was being ridiculous, believing a few drinks would calm his nerves, but as the hand on the clock ticked towards eleven, he didn’t see what else he could do.

 

He was going to the Room of Requirement, as he had known he would since the words had left Ron’s mouth. He didn’t know how to feel about the fact that Ron had thought he would not, and Severus had half-convinced himself it was just the redhead’s attempt at reverse psychology.

_I’m going, but it will not be about sex. This will purely be about blood and working out our rules and boundaries. And it’s obvious we need some._

 

Severus sank back down onto the sofa in front of his office fire and took a mouthful, the neat spirit freshening his mouth and burning as it slid down his gullet. It was muggle and a particularly fine malt. His improved senses made poor quality alcohol intolerable and it was an annoying, not to mention ludicrously expensive, downside of his inhumanity.

 

He had always enjoyed drinking, rarely to excess, though, and that had not changed when he had been turned into a vampire. It took a lot more for him to get drunk, however, which only added to the cost of his hobby. Taking another mouthful, Severus looked nervously again at the clock. It was still only ten. He had another hour before he could get up and let his feet carry him off to his redheaded ball of fire.

 

_No! Just blood! No sex!_

 

He downed the contents of his glass to stop himself thinking on Ron’s body, how it would look fully naked. Getting up for a re-fill, Severus tried to bat away the images which came to his mind’s eye, those of strong arms, a flat stomach and thin but muscular thighs.

 

_And you only know about those things because you’ve been watching him at every possible second, looking at him as he moves through his uniform. Pervert._

Severus didn’t bother to sit down that time; he just sauntered aimlessly around his office, looking at the artefacts there but not really considering any of them in-depth. What he _was_ considering thoroughly was how the gentle contours of Ron’s body would look spread out on a king size bed.

 

_I wonder just what he would let me do to him. If he is to be my submissive then I could technically do whatever I wish… but I will not do anything too harsh... It’s different when you’re an immortal and you can bend over for hours..._

Despite himself, and his anxiety, Severus smiled to himself at the thought of having someone to engage in regular sexual activity with. Even if that someone _was_ eighteen, naïve and should be absolutely untouchable to Severus.

 

_He wants nothing more than for me to touch him, fill him up._

 

Growling angrily, Severus drank some more and stared determinedly in the fire. If anything at all, he was going to have to display a supreme amount of self control that evening. He was barely able to stop thinking of the boy sexually for three seconds. Confronted with him in person Severus was sure it would decrease to two.

 

He drank some more whiskey.

 

***

 

Ron couldn’t believe what the room had thrown up for him. He has simply asked for ‘a place where Severus and I can be alone’ as he’d paced back and forth in the corridor outside the miraculous room, and had been presented with something far, far greater than that.

 

It was one of the richest scenes of seduction he had ever seen. There was a roaring fire, with a large sofa facing the flames. In front of that there was a soft shaggy rug.  Behind the sofa, there was an outrageously large bed which Ron couldn’t help but admit took his breath away, it was so ornate. Dark wood was teamed with scarlet hangings with a matching velvet coverlet, and what felt like black silk sheets sat in the frame, which had carved floral decoration at the tops of the posts and arching to the centre of each side of the bed. It almost made him blush to look at, because it was so very obvious what the bed expected.

 

_Sex. And lots of it._

 

With an anticipatory shiver, Ron turned his eyes to examine the hand basin in the corner of the room, plummed perfectly into the wall. It worked; he’d tested it when he’d first entered the room.

 

He turned to look over the fireplace and saw his reflection in the mirror there. He preened his hair slightly, tucking a lock behind his ear, picking at his fringe, trying to make it look less messy, though it was pointless. He nervously licked his lips and turned to the sink, turning the faucet on and letting it run so the water grew icily cold before he caught some in his hands and drank it.

 

“Nervous dry mouth?” a voice asked from behind him and Ron jumped and shrieked as the icy water he’d not yet drunk fell from his hands onto the thin shirt he was wearing.

“For the love of bloody Merlin, why, why do you have to sneak up on me?!” Ron cried, brushing at the wet spots and growling, before turning off the gushing tap.

 

“Aren’t I allowed to have any fun?” Severus drawled.

“Not that kind of fun,” Ron muttered. “You got in the room okay, then?”  
“I am here, am I not?” Severus stared at him.

 

_Mr. Sarcastic’s back. Joy._

 

Ron suddenly realised that, even though Severus had snuck up on him, he was _there._ He had actually turned up and Ron had been so, so convinced he wouldn’t. That he would run away.

 

“You’re here,” Ron breathed pathetically, his nerves grabbing him by the balls and causing his knees to weaken.

“Yes, I’m fully aware of that fact…”

 

Severus turned away from him, arms folded across his chest. “Did you ask the room for all this?”

“No, I just asked it for a place we could be alone.”

“And what were you thinking of when you asked that?”  
“I wasn’t thinking about sex,” Ron knew what he was hinting at.  
“Really?” Severus questioned.

“Honestly I wasn’t.”

 

“Anyone would think you were trying to seduce me…”

“A bit late for that,” Ron snorted and walked to the sofa, plopping down on it so that the heat from the fire would dry his shirt.

 

He watched as Severus walked around the room, looking closely at each element, before eventually turning to stand near the fire, looking at Ron on the sofa.

“Very handsome,” Severus gave him a cordial nod and Ron looked back at him with an expression of disbelief on his face. “What?”

  
“You talk like you’re from another time,” Ron shrugged. “You could have just said ‘you look nice’ or ‘you scrub up well’.”

 

Severus rolled his eyes and looked into the mirror, wondering why he’d not thought to make more of an effort himself, when Ron so obviously had. He sighed and turned, sitting down on the sofa leaving a sizable gap between him and the redhead.

 

“Oh, well, this is… odd,” Ron muttered, and kicked off his shoes onto the floor, bringing his legs up onto the sofa beside him. 

 

“We need to talk,” Severus said shrewdly, snapping his head to the side, taking in the tall form curled up into the sofa –it was an image which made him surprisingly warm inside.

“I suppose,” Ron said glumly.

 

“It’s very obvious that there is some kind of higher connection between us –a large part of that was your invitation. But I cannot help but think there is something else too. You bring me relief in a way I have never experienced before.”

“Why can I smell… whiskey?” Ron sniffed at the air confusedly, and looked over at him, watching as the older man’s face coloured distinctly. “You had to knock some back before coming up here?”  


There was upset tinging his tone and Ron certainly hadn’t put it there on purpose. He was nothing but a nervous teenager at that moment, pathetically curled up into the sofa, one hand gently massaging his own feet.

 

“I might not be human, but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel the need for a little Dutch courage now and then.”  
“How hard did you have to work to not attach ‘Weasley’ to the end of that?” Ron gave him an impish grin.

“Moderately.”

“You can if you want,” Ron shrugged. “Though it’d be weird to hear it during sex.”

“We’re not here for sex,” Severus sighed, and turned towards the redhead on the sofa, resting one elbow on the top of the back cushions and bending one knee up beneath him. He held the position, though it felt so odd to act so casually in front of a student.

 

“Are we not?” Ron’s voice was soft.

“I’m not.”

“But don’t drinking from me and having sex with me kind of go hand in hand?”

“Not necessarily.”

“That’s right,” Ron said suddenly, face hardening. “Only if you find them attractive. Oh. Well. Want me to put a paper bag over my head or something?”

 

“Oh, don’t be immature,” Severus growled, the alcohol in his system allowing him little tolerance for Ron’s insecurities. “You know that is not the problem here. I would not have asked you to do what you did yesterday if I was not attracted to you.”

“Are you really?”

“Considering the near-constant montage of sordid thoughts floating through my mind about you, Weasley, what do you think?”

 

Severus visibly checked himself and then corrected his speech, “Ron.”

With a small smile Ron answered him, “What sort of thoughts?”

“They are not what we’re here to discuss,” Severus looked down at the carpet.

“Shame. I’d be interested to hear them. Maybe they’re the same as what I’ve been thinking about you?”

 

Severus did not speak and Ron decided to grab the bull by the horns. “I generally think about you drinking from me when we’re having sex. You’re always on top of me and fucking me with my legs about your waist… both totally starkers, clearly.”

“Aren’t you even the slightest bit disturbed at the thought of me naked?” Severus hooked up an eyebrow. “I am not an attractive person; I am not a nice person. Why on earth should that inspire such fantasy?”

 

Ron shrugged. “I’m not going to lie that I’ve found it strange to suddenly want to watch you, to see the way your robes cling to your backside when you bend over… don’t blush, you have a perfect arse.”

 

“We’re digressing,” Severus said forcedly.  
“Good.”

 

“I need you to stop being so damn juvenile,” Severus told Ron. “I need you to realise what you’re dealing with here. This is not just about sex; this is something which could turn out to be very, very dangerous.”

“Dangerous in what way?” Ron asked him evenly.

 

With a growl of frustration, Ron watched as Severus leapt to his feet and began pacing over the rug in front of the fire.

 

“At least take your shoes off, there’s no sense in ruining the room’s rug, it might not let us back in if you do,” Ron admonished.

“The…” Severus stopped dead and looked at him, before growling again and bending down to yank off both of his boots, throwing them off to the side. “Happy? The rug will be unsullied by dirt.”  
“I’m just thinking of good manners,” a smirk played about Ron’s lips as he looked at the socked feet now pressing into the rug, taking in their shape and length.

 

Severus resumed his pacing. “I am very dangerous. Any vampire is very dangerous, Ron. You should know that without me having to tell you.”

“Are you going to give me a lecture about you losing control and turning me?” Ron stretched his legs out luxuriously on the sofa, and did not miss how Severus’ eyes raked along them and back.

“It’s a lecture you clearly need to hear,” Severus groaned. “This is your life you’re playing with. I could kill you. Right now, I could walk over there, and kill you.”

“As you could have done when you were _just_ a wizard,” Ron reasoned. “You had a wand then, you have a wand now. There are curses which could kill me faster than you could drink me dry.”

 

Severus ignored him and continued. “What if I turned you, hmm? What if, in the night, the urge took me and you woke up in the middle of your change? Condemned to a shunned, long life, never quite being on the same level as those you love again? Does that sound pleasurable?”

 

Ron would have answered that it sounded alright if Severus would be there, but that brought him in the firing line for receiving answers that he could not bear to hear –namely that Severus would not stay with him, should he change him.

 

“I’m not some obsessed idiot who thinks you changing me will be the sexual height of my life,” Ron said quietly, looking at the rug. “And I’m not asking you to do that, either.”  
“ _Now_ ,” Severus reminded him acidly. “If we engage in this clandestine affair, there will come a point where you might start to feel so deeply for me the thought of dying and leaving me behind is simply too much. And then, your mind might work over-time. You might feel that it would be best if you were changed now, to retain your youthful appearance.”  
“Well, nobody wants to look like rubbish for eternity,” Ron gave a nod of his head.

  
“My point exactly,” Severus hissed.

“So what are you suggesting?” Ron asked brightly. “We part ways and never see one another again? With you ripping holes in yourself? I don’t think so, Severus.”

“I suggest we enter into this without a sexual pretence.”  
“And what would that be when it’s at home?”

 

Severus reached up and massaged his temples, trying to keep a hold on his temper, which had been legendary before he’d been turned into an over-alert vampire.  “I’m saying, we meet, I drink, and that’s it. You will undoubtedly get hard during, because that’s the nature of the process. But you can take care of that yourself.”  
“And you’ll take care of yourself?” Ron raised an eyebrow. “Your erection? You’ll just go back to your dungeon and wank off thinking about me?”

 

Another ugly blush told him that would be the truth.  
  
“What’s the fucking point?” Ron burst out. “What’s the point of two people being together, and then separating to go and climax thinking about one another? It just seems so stupid.”

“I’ll admit it’s not ideal.”

 

Ron got to his feet. “Maybe you’re protesting like this because you haven’t… because we’ve not done anything properly yet. Maybe once we did, you’d change your mind see how bloody amazing this could be.”

“I doubt that very much. I mean me changing my mind, not that we would be amazing.”

“Well, at least you admit that much,” Ron muttered, and turned to his bag on the floor, out of which he pulled a bottle of honeyed cider he’d liberated from his stash. He thought ‘bottle opener!’ and one instantly appeared on the end table by the sofa and he picked it up, grinning. “Gods, I love this room.”

  
Severus said nothing and watched as he uncapped the bottle and raised it to his lips, drinking in slow, deliberate gulps which accentuated his throat perfectly.

“Would you like some?” Ron held the bottle out to him.

“I haven’t had this in years,” Severus reached for it, and hated the way he loved that their fingers brushed together.

“More of a teenager’s choice, I suppose,” Ron shrugged. “As I can smell, you’re a spirits man.”

 

Severus tipped the bottle back and felt the sweet liquid wash through his mouth. “God, it’s good. Where did you get this?”

“Home-made,” Ron shrugged. “We have an apple orchard in our garden. Well. It _is_ the garden.”

“Did you make it?”

“No, I’m not allowed in there any more after I got pissed at the age of fourteen and nearly killed myself in the apple press.”

 

Severus looked at him with laughing eyes and his mouth even quirked a little bit. “Really?”  
“I can sink that like its water, five bottles in an hour and I’m anybody’s,” Ron snorted and shook his head.

 

“That’s the other thing,” Severus lowered the bottle and kept it in his hand, it felt nice to have something to cling to.  “Vampires by nature are _very_ possessive and territorial. If we were to indulge in sexual intercourse, and then you grew tired of our union, I would find it extremely difficult to let you go without causing either you or your new desired harm.”

“And that’s a proper side-affect of being a vampire; you’re not just making it up?”

“I promise you. In my short time I’ve seen more vengeance-killings than I care to have done.”

 

“Right,” Ron leant against the sofa arm. “Well. I understand that would be an issue. But, with the exception of one or maybe two, we Weasleys tend to mate for life.”

“You are young, you don’t know whether you’ll follow the majority or the minority.”  
“I think I might know,” Ron cocked his head and smiled grimly.

 

“Don’t, whatever you’re thinking, don’t,” Severus advised, waving a finger. “Do not let yourself get caught up in romantic notions about me, Ron, it will do you absolutely no good at all.”  
“Except making me happy,” Ron shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets. “But then hey, who gives a fuck about what I want?”

 

“I don’t have the patience for self-pity,” Severus warned him. “There are so many things about me that you do not know, and would not want to know. I have told you before I am not a nice person, Ron, and you have pursued this regardless.”  
“I wasn’t asking for your pity,” Ron muttered. “Yours is the pity I want least of all.”

 

They fell to silence and the only sound was the crackling of the fire in the grate.

 

 _Bloody stupid,_ Ron shook his head. _Brilliant couch, massive bed, and here we are both standing up like bloody twats._

 

“I have a question for you,” Ron swallowed. “You said that I would be your submissive.”

“Yes,” Severus visibly stiffened; he had been waiting for the questions of that nature.

“Am I really though?”  
“Of course you are, do not let that blow job yesterday trick you into thinking you’d be anything different.”  
“You’re not getting what I mean,” Ron closed his eyes. “Within me, I have the power to keep you sane. I go away, and you go mad with the burning in your arms. It’s like I’m your drug and your supplier at the same time… how am I ever the submissive if I’m constantly pressing myself on you? Forcing you to have me?”

 

“That is just the nature of the union,” Severus shrugged. “It is not entirely like you describe though. You may be a type of drug, but not the most common kind. A drug addict, overall, has a choice. Even if it does not seem like that, at the very beginning there was the first ingestion, the first hit. After that, it was their choice to continue. However, I was turned, against my will, I would never have asked for this. And you were the one that invoked the Invitation lore, and so you made my choice for me, and I was commanded to have you. Everything I now suffer is down to you.”

 

“Exactly, so how can I ever _truly_ be your submissive?”

 

Severus assessed him with a long hard gaze. And then he sighed, looked at the bottle in his hand, and said, “The only part that matters to my vampiric nature is your sexual submittal in the bedroom. Not whether you are providing me with metaphorical hits outside of it. It is a moot point.”

 

“Severus,” Ron took a few steps towards him and came to a halt. “I have to say something.”

“Do go on,” Severus waved the bottle at him, eager to get away from the dismal subject of his enslavement.

Ron took a deep breath and walked so closely that their noses brushed together. “I’m sorry.”

“Pardon?” Severus blinked.

“I’m sorry for invoking the lore. It was... inexcusable. And had I known the true circumstances it would entrap you in, I would never have done it.”

 

Whatever Severus had expected, Ron was fairly sure an apology had not been it. And it was his turn to be surprised as soft lips captured his own and kissed him, as if absorbing the left-over word residue from them. He felt one slim, cool hand on the side of his face, creeping up into his hair, and heard a gentle groan from Severus’ throat.

 

“Thank you,” the raven haired man whispered. “Though we cannot change such things, and I will not waste time wishing to do so.”  
“That was my next question,” Ron confessed. “If there was any way for me to revoke this.”  
“I have never read of it being done,” Severus shook his head. “There are not many cases of this… occurring.”

 

They met again in another kiss, Severus still clasping the bottle of cider between them, and Ron tilted his head gently to attack the heavenly lips more successfully. The heat began to steam off them and yet they had no hold on one another other than Severus’ hand in Ron’s hair. They broke off panting and Ron staggered backwards; Severus noticed he was clearly struggling with himself, holding something back.

  
“What? We should not slip into a world of secrecy,” Severus advised.

“You won’t want to hear what I’m thinking,” Ron’s voice was clouded with desperation.

“Tell me anyway,” Severus swallowed.

 

“How can we kiss like that, how can do something so simple as have a kiss and a touch and yet it produces something so… hot and lusty…” Ron knew he was grabbing at the air with his hands and how stupid that would make him look, but he couldn’t stop the passion pouring out of him. It was like nothing he had ever felt before. “You make me feel so…” he groaned in frustration, “I don’t know. But how can you want to hold back, how can you not want sex? How are you standing there, presented with a submissive who will bend any way you want them to, and not pick them up, dump them on the bed, rip all their clothes off and fuck them into the new year, Severus? How?”

 

Severus watched with widening eyes as the young man in front of him seemed to grow older during the course of his passionate rant. He missed most of the words because of the way he was amazed at the transformation.

 

“See, right there, you’re mentally undressing me, Severus, I know you are!”

“I’m not,” Severus replied automatically, snapping out of the funk.

 

“Well, you know what?” Ron choked the words out, his blood alive with what felt like unbridled passion. “You don’t have to do it mentally any more.” He quickly ghosted his fingers down the front of his shirt and tore it from his shoulders, throwing it down on the sofa, taking a deep breath as he realised what exactly he was doing.

 

Severus couldn’t deny that the sight was breathtaking. Whatever Ron did to look so good, his ‘master’ wanted him to keep it up. His skin was creamy, freckled, he had very little in the way of body hair bar a sparse patch between two pink nipples, which were hardening from their sudden bareness. The muscles on his abdomen were not toned enough to be constantly exercised, but were obviously there, leading to a flat stomach and the beginnings of two delicious hollows as his skin clung to his hipbones and disappeared beneath the waistband of his trousers. His arms were long and, as Severus had anticipated, adorned by soft yet strong looking muscles.

 

“I can see your erection from here,” Ron threw him a challenging look, and then he turned round, so that Severus could see his back, and because his face was hidden, he enjoyed the gasp and the curse as the man lost his grip on the glass bottle he was holding, by grinning broadly.

 

“H-how long have you had that?” Severus stammered, and was unable to resist walking closer and bending slightly to inspect the inked work on the redhead’s back.

“Just after the war,” Ron said over his shoulder.

 

“That’s… stunning…” Severus was having a hard time finding words as he looked at the tattoo, which spread from the small of Ron’s back, dominating the curve, to the midpoint of his spine. Recognising the figure on the skin, Severus looked over it. “Why the Fire Imp?”

 

“Have you _looked_ at my head?” Ron snorted. “It could hardly have been any of the other three, could it?”

 

Ron’s choice of the Fire Imp had been instant, and definite. One of the stories read to him in his childhood, the four Elemental Imps had always fascinated him, even though they were completely fictional. Plus, out of the four, Fire had always been the manliest, though all were beautiful and somewhat effeminate. But with his blazing hair and wings, Ron had been driven to choose him.

 

It came from an old wizarding fairy tale, of the four Elemental Imps –fire, water, earth and air, who watched over their human charges on the earth and had to keep them from entering into trouble. However, the humans rebelled from their control and found out to their cost that the Imps’ guidance was crucial. Then each of the Imps blamed themselves for their failures and realised how they could have done better –by acknowledging that they had been too full of the traits they had been striving to control in their human groups. They resolved to improve to try and salvage the world. Ron had always loved the story and when he had walked into the shop of one of the finest magical tattooists in London, one day soon after the fall of Voldemort, he knew exactly what he wanted, and where.

 

“Why would you choose this? That story is barely read these days…”  
“Well, it was read to me,” Ron shrugged, and Severus watched with total fascination as the fairy-like creature moved with his skin, the colours vibrant, beautifully blended and mesmerising, the male creature handsome and strapping.

“It was read to me too…The Latin inscription?” Severus’ eyes looked at the way the imp’s head was turned up the back he was painted on, long fiery locks flowing out behind him, and pointed his arm the same way, and on the limb tiny, ornately looped words were inked.

 

“The line from the book,” Ron confirmed. “‘The fiery souls I command and reign in…’”

“You are full of surprises,” Severus straightened again, and didn’t bother acting chastely; he put his arms around Ron from behind and touched his bare torso. “You are delicious.” He punctuated the words with kisses on Ron’s shoulder.

 

“I’m not done yet,” Ron stepped away from him and undid his trousers, heart banging nervously against his ribs.

“No, you don’t, you shouldn’t do that-” Severus protested, reaching forward and grabbing his hands. “This isn’t what I…”

  
“Want?” Ron’s face fell.

“Came to discuss,” Severus corrected gently.

 

“And do you want me, Severus? Do you want to have me bent over that bed, hmm? Is that what you’re saying… that we’ll have that? That you’ll fuck me as roughly as you like, even on my first time, as you take my virginity? That you’ll make me scream out your name as I come undone?”

“Yes, we will have that,” Severus swallowed, even though that was totally not what he’d intended to say, but he was hooked in, throat inconceivably tight, by Ron’s vivid descriptions.

 

Ron was on him then, a panting mess of kisses, his hands wandering freely over the fully clothed body of his Professor, desperately kissing what bare skin he could find and gripping what was covered with bruising strength.

 

Severus lost himself in the scorching touches and accepted every kiss that Ron bestowed upon him.

 

“Ron,” he gasped, as his head was tilted back and the redhead kissed down the side of his throat, a reversal of their usual positions. A rip of lust took up in his groin when he felt teeth nibbling at his skin. “No, Ron, stop, right now… I…”  
“What? Why can’t you let me do this? I’m not allowed to kiss you?”  


“No, I just… we weren’t finished… ah,” he hissed and rolled his hips forward against Ron’s body. “We need to talk.”  
“We can talk afterwards…” Ron’s choice words made his intentions crystal clear and Severus tried to fight what was building within him.

 

And that was the need to show Ron just how dangerous he could be in the only way he truly could.

 

Severus fought it for as long as possible, but there was no stopping it when Ron insistently razed the flesh of his neck, and massaged Severus’ body sensually with his hands.

 

“Enough!” Severus’ cold shout cut through the muggy atmosphere like a knife and he grabbed for Ron, forcing every bit of his strength into holding the redhead still. “You are foolish. You missed the message in what you had tattooed on your back –that Fire Imp is meant to control the impulsive, raging natures of those like him, yet he obviously has no hold over you.”

 

Ron had stilled in his arms, and watched with alert blue eyes, still clouded with the lust propelled into them by his most recent actions. The back of his neck crept as one of Severus’ hands ghosted up over his tattoo and then without further warning, snapped hold of his hair and tugged his head backwards, exposing his throat.

 

“This doesn’t have to be erotic,” Severus hissed dangerously. “There is a damned good reason why people are scared of my kind, Weasley, and you are the abnormality in that you refuse to be. Maybe this will show you why.”

 

Shaking with the gravity of his actions, Severus made sure he had a tight hold on the thick auburn hair and let his eyes flash angrily at the redhead. “It’s not so sexy now, is it? It’s not such a fun game. I can feel your heart pounding away, so don’t you dare lie to me that you aren’t scared.”

 

Ron swallowed, and he realised that Severus was right; fear was trickling through his intravenous system like someone had injected him with it. Alongside it ran icy cold and he couldn’t help his little shiver, which turned into a complete shudder when he saw Severus smile, and for the first time actually noticed his fangs. Severus had never shown them to him before and it was very clear to Ron that he was being intimidated.

 

And he was in no position to refuse such intimidation, unlike that first night where he had held all the cards in their dangerous game.

 

“You are a fool, and you need to know why,” Severus spat. “And I hope this will teach you some fucking sense.”

 

And then his head was bent, and Ron heard his scream of fright before he realised it had left his mouth. The fangs pierced and for the first time it was painful. True fear blossomed in his chest as he felt stirring in his groin, and he was suddenly struck by a thought which nearly made his heart stop.

 

_He told me it only hurts when they intend to kill or turn. Oh my fucking God._

 

But then Ron felt the heavy heat of his erection against him, and it was clear that he was still sexually stimulated by the way Severus was sucking him.

 

_Am I meant to? Or am I really just so sick I’d get my jollies from being killed? Oh fuck._

 

“S-Severus, please stop…” he begged, surely too quietly to be heard.

 

Heard or not, the raven haired man did not detach from his neck and Ron cried out again, hating the way a hand suddenly wrapped around his dick and stroked.

 

“No, no please stop…”

 

Severus let go of the erection he had tentatively picked up, but he did not stop sucking. The blood flowed through his mouth with vibrancy and there was no way in hell he was stopping yet. He had never wanted to have to resort to such a vivid tutorial in fear, but it seemed his Fire Imp needed it, or he would never understand the true danger he placed his life within. And, if such an act shattered all of Ron’s trust in Severus, it would be much easier for both of them to move on.

 

“Oh God, I can’t… I’m going to…” Ron had no room to move his head, but his hips he could roll and he did, desperately searching out friction with which to bring his release.

 

Coherent thought had packed its bags and left when Severus had removed his hand. Ron could never remember being so torn –he had asked for the hand to leave and yet when it obeyed, he wanted it back so much his skin burned for the contact. And now he _needed_ to rub against Severus, or anything, to get off.

 

Severus sensed his desperation and granted him his wish, still sucking the blood, so much more than he had ever chanced to take from Ron’s neck before. It fortified his own arteries as it absorbed into his body, bringing him strength unrivalled, that no other donor had ever given him before. For all the grief he had insinuated to Ron about the Invitation, as he stood and listened to the desperate whimpering of the redhead, and felt his own reaction, Severus knew there had to be something more to their union.

 

All of those thoughts were chased from his mind very suddenly. Ron’s screaming stepped up in his arms and from the frantic thrusts against his body, Severus knew he was approaching climax. Still drinking, Severus did not plan to give him any reprieve when he had reached it. But Ron’s colouring took a sudden lurch and he bleached a dangerous shade of white, and Severus’ eyes flew wide when he realised what was happening.

 

_No, God no, I’ve not drunk that much!_

 

Ron let out final mewl and shuddered, his spine arching as he climaxed in long pulses all over Severus’ robes, mewl rising to a sordid scream. Undecipherable, panted words left his lips before he sagged like a stupidly tall rag doll in Severus’ arms.

 

Severus steeled himself to detach but did not manage to do so with his usual grace and precision in his fear. With horror he saw that he had sucked long and hard enough to leave markings on his partner, and even more horribly, a trickle of blood oozed out of the left puncture hole. And Ron was still limp in his arms.

 

_Oh God I just meant to drink, and scare, I didn’t mean to kill him. Oh sweet Godric what have I done?_

He fruitlessly shook Ron in his arms and listened hard for a response, but there was none. But there was a definite fluttering of a heartbeat in the pale chest. Severus swept the limp body up in his arms and strode to the bed. He placed Ron on it, his limbs falling gracefully with his flaccidity. Fumbling fingers could not find the blood restorative in Severus’ robes quick enough and he was growling at himself by the time he managed to uncork the vial. He jumped onto the bed, landing on his knees, and opened Ron’s mouth, working a hand beneath the red hair to lengthen his neck and prop the head up slightly so he would not choke his lover.

 

And then he tipped the whole vial of concentrate down, knowing it could do no damage if the dose were too much, but he was sickened to acknowledge that it might not actually be _enough._ He cast the vial aside and rubbed Ron’s throat gently, helping the liquid to move with the moving muscles.

 

Still shocked at what he had inadvertently done, all in the name of a lesson, Severus got off the bed and bellowed into the room desperately, his rage and fury with himself coming to the fore. He had _never_ come so close to killing a human. The older vampires he had met had always told him it was nothing, that it was in his nature now to kill and he should not regard it as anything more than one would regard swatting an irksome fly against a window pane.

 

But Severus could not, would not think wasting of human lives in such a blithe, disgusting manner. Innocent people could not die purely because of a curse bestowed upon him –that was such an injustice, even though a great injustice had been done to him.

 

_I cannot desert him now. No. In trying to drive him from me I have only driven us closer together by my need to protect. I have hurt him and now he is mine… oh sweet Jesus I am a classic fool._

Defeated, Severus turned back to the magnificent bed, and thought what an utter travesty it was that it had to be used for such a morbid occasion, rather than the lusty one it had expected. He stripped off his soiled robes and cast them onto the floor, stepping out of his trousers and socks as well. He levitated Ron with his wand and pulled back the sumptuous covers. He lowered the limp body back down, and crawled in along side Ron, covering them up. And then Severus dropped his wand, manoeuvring himself back against the pillows and the headboard in a sitting position. He spread his legs and reached for Ron, and pulled him into his embrace, so his head lolled back on Severus’ now bare shoulder.

 

“I am so sorry,” Severus whispered into Ron’s hair, even though he knew there would be no answer yet. He must have drained the boy drastically to have caused him to lose consciousness then and there. “I never intended this to happen.” He picked up his wand to heal the puncture wounds, feeling ill.

 

***

When Ron did eventually come to, two hours later, he groaned and stretched out. He felt his skin slide over the silk sheets and realised he was in the bed. _But then where’s Severus?_

 

“I’m here,” there was a soft, strangled note in that voice and Ron opened his eyes immediately to find out what was wrong.

 

The room swum and he groaned, closing them again.  
  
“Just stay very still,” Severus whispered in his ear. “I’ve got you.”  


Ron groaned in response and thought back over what he could remember. His eyes flew open again.

“Sev…” he croaked, not managing the full name. “What…?”  
“I made a mistake,” Ron hated the way that voice was so full of sorrow.

“Everything’s alright, Sev… I’m… fine.”  
“No thanks to me.”  


“I was scared of you,” Ron whispered. “It worked.”  
“It nearly killed you.”

“But it didn’t.”  


It took a lot of groaning, but Ron managed to turn to face Severus in the bed, though his head pounded and he felt stupidly weak. “I shouldn’t have… taunted you by taking my clothes off. I’m s-sorry.”

“Don’t you dare apologise,” Severus hissed. “I am at fault, Ron, and I am so, so sorry. I promised I would never hurt you… and…”  


Ron’s mouth fell open in weak protestation as the raven haired man hung his head and closed his eyes, mouth drawn tightly, biting on his own lips to attempt to keep his sobs in. His hair fell forward to shield his face and Ron, had he been more awake and coherent, would have marvelled at how striking Severus looked.

 

“I know now.” Ron whispered softly.  “I know what this is, how dangerous it is. And you… terrified me, Severus… even though I still came. It wasn’t the thought of dying, or changing… it was the… difference in you. That scared me…”  
“This has to stop… but it can’t now,” Severus’ eyes betrayed him in releasing a wave of tears.

 

Ron waited for him to explain.

 

“I have just driven myself to protect you, to save you…and that will invoke more magic, more lore. We are crossed now. Whatever happens, we will have sex, and we will love one another eventually. Or, I will love you.”

“Love’s a b-big word,” a wave of tiredness washed over Ron and he fought it, struggling to keep his hold on consciousness. “But I’m sure w-we’ll get there… ‘ventually.”  


“All I wanted to do was scare you,” Severus beseeched him. “I didn’t want to kill you, please believe me.”

“I do,” Ron assured him, as he rested his head on Severus’ shoulder. “But you need to… believe your….”

 

The word ‘self’ was wispy and Ron fell asleep half way through it. Severus put a hand to the red hair and swallowed hard, silently crying his tears of regret as the redhead slept on his shoulder.

 

He stroked the fiery tresses softly.

 

_I wish I had killed someone before now just to take this pain away. It breaks my heart that you were nearly the first._

 

He squeezed his eyes tightly together, trying to stem the flow of hot tears dripping onto Ron’s hair. Now that Ron had woken up, his body had begun to warm, and Severus relished the feeling of having his body so close to another’s, so intimately, both of them naked except for their underwear.

 

 _He didn’t even ask where his trousers went,_ Severus thought wryly. He had spelled them off when he realised they could not have been comfortable to sleep in. And then he had had a shameful moment where, confronted with seeing Ron almost completely naked for the first time, Severus had feasted on the sight when the redhead was not awake to comment.

 

_I was right. He is delicious. And he will be stunning in every situation I can put him in._

 

The tears had finally dried up and Severus sniffed slightly. He shifted in the bed and Ron groaned, tightening his grip around Severus’ torso, and muttered in his sleep.

 

“What was that?” Severus whispered.

“Mine… my Sev…” Ron’s head nuzzled into his shoulder, and gently kissed the skin there.

 


	6. Education

Severus sat behind his desk whilst his NEWT students futilely attempted to brew a notoriously difficult antidote. They were all restless, the Christmas break was drawing near and it looked as though none of them were adequately concentrating.

 

_Except Granger. Ron is so right… they would never have worked together._

He allowed himself a surreptitious glance at his newly named Fire Imp, and could have smiled at the way Ron was looking into his cauldron, hair frazzling in the heat, brow furrowed and lip bit.

 

_And this is why you can’t look at him in lessons. You start remembering things…_

Severus coughed slightly and straightened in his seat, looking back to the open book on his desk. He turned a page for good measure, even though he hadn’t read a word.

 

They had met secretly four times since their catastrophic visit to the Room of Requirement. Each time had been fraught with tension, kisses, bloodsucking and various acts of sexual contact –nearly everything but the actual act itself.

 

 _Oh God, that first time, where he let me go down on him…_ Severus knew his eyes must have glazed over, thinking of the way he had roughly arranged Ron against the wall of their secret chamber, hands pinned up above his head, and licked and sucked his cock until it was purple and glistening with spit and pre-come. Severus didn’t have to try hard to recall the sound of Ron pleading with him in his ears.

 

 _He’s good at begging, we learnt that the second time…_ The second time had been more dangerous, because it was not in their secret chamber; it had been in one of the alcoves in the Dungeons, barely covered by a tapestry. A few people even walked past whilst Severus had unzipped both of their trousers, crushed their naked cocks together and then wrapped his hand around them both, urging Ron to do the same. They had a few minutes of delicious stroking before Ron lost control. _I am going to have to verse him in keeping control of himself..._ Severus turned another page. _And he knows if he climaxes before I tell him to, he has to lick it off…_

 

His body shuddered slightly thinking of the image, of the way the redhead’s eyes had widened when Severus had first imparted that particular bit of knowledge.

 

An outbreak of laughter ripped him cruelly from his thoughts and he snapped to attention, wondering if his expression had given him away. But no, it was just the Slytherin contingent mocking one of the other students. Severus threw them a contemptuous glance and they immediately hushed –he might be many things, but he was not a pushover, and they knew better than to try their luck against him.

 

The room fell back to the sound of bubbling cauldrons and Severus sank back into his recollections like a warm bath.

 

 _The third time… I think that nearly sent him off the planet._ Not able to hide his smirk, Severus tucked his chin down into his chest so that his face was hidden by his hair. Ron’s first experience of being fingered had left him trembling and mewling, and Severus had briefly wondered whether it was cruel that he should have so much experience, and Ron none, and be introducing him to his pleasure so quickly. _The sooner he learns the better._

 

By that third time, Severus had been surprised to find that his guilt had slipped away somewhat, melted by Ron’s heated cries. And even though he still gulped with the nausea which overcame him when he thought of the way he had nearly killed the boy, he found he had begun to look forward to their clandestine meetings.

 

_Which brings you right back to wondering quite why they’re still in stupidly exposed places… You have quarters, and you should use them for this. Just think of what you could do to him…_

 

The fourth time, they had returned to the Room of Requirement, and Ron had been thrilled to see that the bed had materialised again and had immediately clambered on it, seductively slinging his hips from side to side, crooking one finger at Severus, beckoning him to what looked very close to ecstasy. Severus had gone but held back from the one goal that Ron seemed to be pushing for. And so to distract him, Severus had let Ron explore his own body, mainly fully clothed, and it finished in a much improved blow job from the first Ron had given.

 

Even sitting at his desk in front of a bunch of brats, Severus grew hard thinking of the way that tongue had owned him for those few short minutes. Licking, sucking, humming – _I need to mention I liked that, he didn’t seem sure-_ and that infernal, damning groaning noise which Severus hadn’t been able to disguise his pleasure at.

 

 _No, screaming as you come down his throat is a pretty big giveaway that you enjoyed it._ Another smirk and Severus gave a swallow, before daring to look up at the class again.

 

Ron was still working at his potion and suddenly gave a bright smile when something went right. Severus watched as the blue eyes checked over the page in his book, then went back to the cauldron, and the smile grew wider.

 

_Oh Gods, sorry I have to do this Ron. I don’t want to._

 

Resolutely, Severus pulled his wand out of his sleeve and aimed it under the desk. He needed to speak to the redhead but he needed a legitimate reason to keep him behind. He had some news to impart that he wasn’t sure how he would take, and they needed to be somewhere private for the conversation. Gritting his teeth, Severus sent a wordless effervescing spell at Ron’s cauldron, and quickly slid his wand away.

 

“AAAAGH CRAPITCRAPITCRAPIT!” Ron’s loud cry cut through the quiet classroom and Severus tried to keep his face impassive as he got to his feet.

 

The class scrambled away from the potion which was bubbling and fizzing out of the melting cauldron with great shoots into the air, Ron was smothered in it, his red hair darkened and uniform dripping. It wasn’t long before the laughter started, led, Severus noticed, by _that bloody bushy haired bitch know-it-all._

 

Severus ignored the way he was passing judgement on his students in his head in accordance to how they treated Ron, and strode over to the mess. He pulled his wand out, vanished the cauldron, cut the fire, and looked, as best he could, contemptuously at Ron.

 

“Was that supposed to be funny, Weasley?” He glared.

 

_Oh Salazar he looks like a wounded puppy._

 

“No!” Ron cried wildly, still dripping with the mess of his failed Potion. “I don’t know what happened.”  
“Likely story,” Severus sneered. “Detention for wasting class time,” the bell rang out shrilly in the corridor by the dungeon. “Stay behind. And do clean yourself up a bit,” Severus evilly raked his eyes up and down the sopping form and turned without another word. “Stasis spells, now, you’ll be continuing this after Christmas.”

 

Ron glared at Severus’ retreating back for a few moments before picking up his wand and casting cleaning spells on himself, and although he managed to get the majority off, the white collar of his school shirt was dyed a dirty shade of pink.

“Fucking fabulous,” he muttered under his breath, watching as the rest of the class finished placing preservation spells on their work and left, most of them shooting him amused glances and smirks.

 

_I haven’t blown anything up for months. I wonder what I did wrong, if there was too much willow bark? Hmm. Fucking shit though. And now I need a new fucking uniform. Jumper’s ruined._

The door of the dungeon banged shut and Severus immediately locked it behind the student. Then he turned back to Ron.

 

“I’m sorry,” he apologised immediately.  
“What for?” Ron muttered.  
“Blowing up your cauldron…”

“That was you?!” Ron stormed angrily. “What the fuck, Severus? That was absolutely perfect; I was going to get top marks for that!”

“I needed a legitimate excuse to talk to you,” Severus perched on the edge of his desk. “And we cannot always meet in dark corners.”

 

Ron looked up at that. “What, you want to… here?” His voice was youthfully hopeful and Severus couldn’t help his small smile.

“No, actually, I just wanted to have a talk with you.”

“About what?” Ron walked over and wedged in between Severus’ thighs.

“Pink really isn’t your colour,” Severus raised an eyebrow at the stained collar of Ron’s shirt.

“I need a new bloody uniform now, thanks to you,” Ron’s angry glare returned. “And I don’t have the money for it.”

 

“It’s Christmas soon.”  
“And a school uniform is your idea of a Christmas present?” Ron laughed.

“No, I just… look. I have something to tell you.”  
“What?” Ron smiled easily at him, and Severus wished he could guarantee that the smile would still be there when he had finished speaking.

“We break up in a few days… and I’m going away for Christmas.”

 

“What?” Ron’s head snapped up from where he had been tracing patterns over Severus’ legs with his fingers.

“I… this was arranged before we…” Severus motioned between them, as though that was an adequate representation of their union. “And I cannot back out, nor do I really want to.”  
“Where are you going?” Ron’s voice was cold and dull.

“Paris,” Severus shook his hair back nervously.

“Why?!” Ron frowned.

 

“You keep asking me those questions like you have a right to pry,” Severus’ snippy side kicked in at the way the boy was looking at him –as though Severus had no right in having plans.

“And I don’t?” Ron asked, taking a step back off the raised platform on which Severus’ desk sat.

“No, you do not; remember what I am to you.”

“I thought that was just in the bedroom,” Ron scathed, sulkily folding his arms over his ruined jumper.

“I will extend it beyond the realms of the bedchamber when I feel the necessity.”

 

They glared at each other for a moment and then Ron shrugged. “Fine, just fucking brilliant.”

“It has been arranged for a long time, I’m going to see a friend that lives in one of the covens which operates beneath the city.”  
“A friend?” Ron knew he sounded suspicious –but hell, he was. _Just what kind of fucking friend?_

“You have no cause to be jealous,” Severus said acidly. “This person is just a close acquaintance from my first year as what I am. You do not shun those who helped you in such bleak times.”

 

“What about you, and the blood? And me? You’d better not hurt yourself again, Severus, I swear-”

“I will be fine,” Severus got to his feet. “I will be coming back and then you will be here. I am convinced the last time was only so bad because I mentally denied myself, as well as physically. This time there will be no such mistake.”

  
“And what about me, huh?” Ron sulked. “What am I meant to do for two weeks without you?”

“Well it’ll hardly matter, you’ll be at home,” Severus gave a little shrug and began to tidy his desk.

 

“No, I won’t,” Ron frowned.

 

Severus paused and whirled round, the book he’d not been reading during the lesson in his hands. “What do you mean?”  
“You heard the howler,” Ron shifted uncomfortably, digging his hands into his pockets. “I was told to fix it or I wouldn’t be welcome home for Christmas… well, no magic fix, so that sees me here for the holiday, doesn’t it?”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

 

“Well, I cannot change my plans,” Severus said firmly –he would not let his addiction rule his life. “I have promised to visit and I will. You will have to make do here by yourself.”

“Season of good tidings my arse,” Ron muttered. “You know, you’re the only good thing about this place for me right now, and you’re fucking off.”

“Might I remind you where we are?” Severus raised an eyebrow. “You will not use such language when we are in an obviously academic setting.”

 

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” Ron gave a disbelieving scoff.  
“What, dancing around in circles? Not particularly.”

“Seeing how miserable the thought of you being gone makes me,” Ron informed him.

“Oh, don’t be so idiotic,” Severus snapped. “Of course that thought doesn’t entertain me.”

“Can I come with you?” Ron asked suddenly, his eyes lighting up.

 

But the lights were snuffed when Severus laughed, coldly.

 

“That would be the idea of the year, walking a hot-blooded human into a coven of vampires who do not hold the morals that I do. Honestly, what a ridiculous notion!”

“I just want to spend time with you,” Ron turned and picked up his bag.

“Well, have you ever considered that maybe I have other people to spend time with, in addition to yourself?”

“No, I suppose I hadn’t considered that,” Ron answered truthfully.

“Yes, of course, the idea of me having friends is beyond comprehensible,” Severus glared at him. “You really are a close-minded fool.”

 

Ron stared at him and looked very much like he wanted to thump Severus. But instead he just opened his mouth and said, “If you’ve finished putting words in my mouth, I’d like to leave, if that’s alright? If you _permit_ that?”

 

“Ron, look-” As usual Severus was pushed to feel guilt over his words, and wanted to say something to soothe the agitated man in front of him.

“No,” Ron shook his head and strode to the door, cast an ‘alohomora’ and darted from the classroom.

 

Severus watched him go and the way the door drifted shut behind him.

 

_Oh well that just went fantastically. I’m really doing superbly on that whole ‘keeping my temper’ thing. Now I don’t even have an arrangement for blood before I go._

Severus mentally checked himself, annoyed at the way he’d just referred to Ron as nothing more than his hit. They both knew that Ron was becoming much more than that, and as to what Severus was to Ron, it was very clear in the redhead’s protests at him going away for the holidays.

 

Severus was torn about going. One the one hand, it had been arranged for months and he was genuinely looking forward to seeing his friend, and being able to converse with those like him. But on the other, what he left behind was such a part of him he didn’t know how easily he would be able to leave it. And going away was a test for himself, of his strength, of his control… and of how much he truly cared for Ron.

 

***

Ron was beyond unhappy. He stomped up the stairs to Gryffindor Tower and entered the dormitory which he and Harry shared between themselves. It was their old one, which the school had kept for them to stay in whilst they continued their studies, not having the room for them to sleep with the boys in the year below them that were now their classmates. Living with just the two of them certainly had its benefits when they had been speaking, but now, when they were not, it just made everything seem more desolate.

 

Ron had loved the way that he and Harry had grown closer for the privacy, the way they could talk and move freely without considering anybody else. They had been friends for so long there were few secrets and neither of them was particularly shy around the other any more.

 

 _He might have been a bit shyer if he knew I was checking out his backside, though._ Ron rolled his eyes at himself and threw his bag down on his bed. He reached up to loosen his tie.

 

_Mmm. Tie. Reminds me of when Severus grabs me by it and then… No! I’m angry with him and that means I’m not meant to enjoy the thought of him… mmm. Dammit._

 

Ron knew there was little point at remaining angry at Severus. Ron hadn’t even been angry when he’d woken up in the Room of Requirement feeling like the walking dead. He couldn’t be. He had understood Severus’ motives that night even though they had scared him shitless. It had just gone wrong. So Ron knew that although all the angry words in the world could pour out of his mouth, he would never cling on to them and hold a grudge.

 

He wasn’t so sure about Severus however, who had certainly looked angry. Ron stopped removing his uniform and sank down on his bed. That Potions lesson had been his last of the term, considering he had free periods for the rest of the day and his outside lessons the next day had been cancelled on account of the weather. The day after that everybody was leaving.

 

Ron knew it was going to be awful to not go home with Harry and Ginny to The Burrow, but he couldn’t see it was going to be any less awful to actually go. His mother had made no contact since her howler and the rest of his family were being silent, which told him everything he needed to know. They either agreed with his mother or had been threatened by her. He had had a vain hope that the twins might make contact, because they had never been under her thumb, but they’d disappointed him.

 

 _As you seem to have disappointed them... all._ Ron fell onto his back and looked up at his canopy, hearing the wind rail around the tower. December was certainly unpleasant so far.

 

He heard footsteps outside the door and didn’t bother to sit up when it swung open. Harry had barely spoken to him since that night in the hall and Ron wasn’t going to waste his energy on being courteous.

 

So Ron did not expect it when he heard him approach and then felt the bed dip down as Harry sat down next to him.

 

“Hey,” Harry said awkwardly, and Ron pushed himself up on his elbows.

“Hi.”

“How are you?”

“Pissed off, I just ruined a uniform and my shirt’s stained pink.”

 

The bluntness wasn’t because he was angry, it was just how they usually talked to one another and Ron felt they would get somewhere far more quickly if they acted normally.

 

“How are you?” Ron asked him back politely.

“I miss you,” Harry said simply, then fell down onto his back next to Ron.

 

Now he no longer had to look up, Ron also dropped down but turned his head to the side to look at his best friend. Messy black hair and green eyes distinguished him though his face had grown up considerably since the end of the war, and his jaw line was even coated with a stubble shadow.

 

“You need a shave,” Ron smiled at him.

“I already have, it keeps growing back… itches like mad and it’s driving me up the bloody wall.”

“And you mocked me because I can’t grow one,” Ron remembered. “Now who’s laughing?”

“Nobody’s laughing very much at all at the minute…” Harry said unhappily. “Somehow this wasn’t how I imagined life without Voldemort to be.”

“No, me either,” Ron admitted, though his thoughts were mainly on how much his life had changed in the past few weeks than anything else.

 

They had been very careful in hiding their meetings. They only ever met at a legitimate time that Ron could disappear from castle life –in a free lesson, in the black void between dinner and curfew. He was back by curfew every time and did his schoolwork then, took meals with everyone else and generally carried on as though nothing had changed.

 

“Are you sure, Ron… that you don’t…”

“Want her? Pretty sure, Harry.”  
“Okay.”

“Really?”

“If you were just pissing around about this, you would have changed your mind by now. We thought the howler was a definite.”

“You knew she was sending that?”

“No,” Harry admitted. “But we did hear what it said.”  
“I think the founders in their tombs heard what it said,” Ron muttered bitterly.

“She doesn’t know I’m talking to you,” Harry said quietly.  
“I guessed as much. You know mate, don’t cause yourself any grief,” Ron struggled to sit up, his stomach muscles aching at the movement.

“I have two best friends, Ron, and I’m used to them being at each other’s throats.”  
“So why have you ignored me for best part of three weeks?”

 

“Didn’t say I was good at _handling_ them being at one another’s throats, just used to it,” Harry said sheepishly and sat up. “Is there… someone else?”

“She asked you to ask this, right?”

“No, I’m telling you –she doesn’t know I’m speaking to you.”

“There’s nobody else,” Ron lied firmly through his teeth. “I’m just… not ready for that life. To settle down, to be tied to someone else.” That part, however, was not a lie. Even though he knew, with Severus, he was already treading that fine line.

“Are you saying this is about getting shagged?” Harry breathed.

“No, it’s not. I’m saying it’s having some time to bloody breathe!” Ron got to his feet. “If you’re happy with marrying Ginny straight from this place, Harry, then fine, I’m really pleased for you. You need that family life because you didn’t have it growing up. But I need…”

“More,” Harry finished for him with an understanding nod and a soft expression.

 

“I’m glad you get it Harry,” Ron leant against one of his bedposts and closed his eyes, letting his head fall onto the wooden column. “I’m glad you understand.”

“Why haven’t you told her this?”

“I did try, Harry. The day after this all happened. But she just shouted at me and I’ll admit I lost my temper… and thought that if she didn’t want to give me the chance to explain myself, when I hadn’t done anything nasty, then she didn’t deserve to hear it.”

 

“You don’t think hearing ‘I don’t want you’ from the person you’ve been in love with isn’t nasty?” Harry got to his feet, eyebrows raised.

“I know, I know I’m the bad guy here, Harry, you don’t have to point it out. And I do understand why she’s upset; I would have been… rejection hurts. But it’s not like I… rubbed it in her face by going out with someone else.”

 

_That she knows about…_

 

“It’s all just a shit-filled mess,” Harry stated and Ron nodded his agreement. “I wish we were eleven again.”

“Ah, don’t say that mate,” Ron scratched his scalp roughly. “It was a long road to get where we are today.”

“True,” Harry conceded. “Look, how about we stay in tonight, just me and you… I’ll get some food from the elves and you’ve got plenty of booze, yeah? We’ll just… chill a bit.”

“Sounds good,” Ron smiled at him, and was shocked when Harry bounded over and grabbed him a manly hug.

 

“Merlin’s balls, hanging out with girls has got to you,” Ron snorted, but patted him on the back all the same.

“Ron, are you sure there’s nobody else?” Harry pulled back, green eyes puzzled.  
“Yeah,” Ron’s heartbeat sped up. “Why?”  
“It’s just,” Harry clearly sniffed at Ron. “You smell… like you’ve had someone wrapped around you that smells of flowers.”

“That’s fucking weird mate, your nose must be cocked up,” Ron looked at him with amusement. “And don’t forget I got doused in potion.”

 

“Oh, yeah,” Harry shrugged, and Ron could tell he was happy with the explanation. “Forgot. When’s your detention with Snape?”

 

_Fuck. That very fake detention._

“Tomorrow night, bastard,” Ron didn’t even wince, he was so used to slagging Severus off to Harry. “Last night of bloody term and he’s going to have me doing God knows what.”

 

Harry made a face. “I hate him.”

 

_Well, then, whatever you do, don’t come by the dungeons tomorrow night._

 

***

Ron was prepared to get shouted at when he rapped on Severus’ office door at seven the next night. He hadn’t got a chance to warn the man that he’d made up a fake detention date for them. Still in his uniform, Ron waited for the door to be answered. There were sounds within the office and it was obvious Severus was there, but for some reason was ignoring his door. Ron knocked louder and shoved his hands in his pockets. There was an annoyed groan from within the office and then the door finally flew open.

 

“What?!” Severus barked, before he looked at who was in the hallway. He had two books in his hands which he gestured his displeasure at being interrupted with.  
“Reporting for detention,” Ron looked at him glumly.

 

Severus froze with a frown on his face. Then he wordlessly stepped back and gestured Ron in, closing the door behind him.

 

“What detention?” Severus asked immediately.

“The one that you gave me yesterday after you exploded my potion,” Ron threw him a filthy look and walked to sit down in front of the sofa –he had never been casually inside Severus’ rooms since they had argued in them a few weeks before, but he wasn’t going to hang awkwardly around the edges.

“But you didn’t actually have to turn up,” Severus was nonplussed, still holding the books in his hands; he’d been trying to decide which of the two to pack.

“I did, actually, Harry asked and it would have looked odd for me to skip it.”

 

“I didn’t think you were talking with Harry?” Severus turned away, hiding the sour look on his face at the thought of Ron reconciling with Potter.

“Well, things change,” Ron put his feet up on the low coffee table.

“Get your feet off my furniture,” Severus snapped and gave up choosing, placing both books in his open suitcase.

“Packing for your trip?” Ron asked, not removing his feet.

“No, I’m running away to join the circus.”

“Send me a postcard,” Ron looked into the fire.

 

Severus sighed and turned around. “Seriously, please remove your feet from that. It’s an antique.”

 

Ron groaned and did as he was asked, letting his legs fall heavily to the floor. Severus observed his slumped figure and decided to give up on his packing. Noiselessly he slid onto the sofa next to Ron, but unlike the last time they had sat together in such a way, he did not bother keeping distance between them. He put an arm around the redhead’s shoulders and leant back comfortably.

 

“So how are you?” Severus asked him, awkwardly; their meetings never usually involved much small talk.

“You don’t have to talk to me,” Ron laughed, and leant his head against Severus’ warm shoulder.

“Yes, I do,” Severus whispered, and kissed his hair softly. “We both know this isn’t going to stay just about sex and drinking for long…”

“It’s not?” Ron didn’t bother to look at him.

“No,” another kiss was pressed to the auburn hair.

“Then… I’m a bit… depressed.” Ron answered truthfully, and realised how strange it felt to admit that –he never would have to Harry or Hermione. But Severus somehow felt different, like he broke the usual boundaries of friendship.

 

“Why?” Severus asked softly, running his hand down to capture Ron’s and lace their fingers together.

Ron gave a tiny shrug and closed his eyes. “Nothing is like I thought it would be.”

“What isn’t?”  
“Life after the war,” Ron wished he could put his feet back up on the coffee table, but out of respect to the man being so gentle with him, he did not. “Nobody seems particularly happy.”  
“That’s the trouble when you have a big goal. When you get there, and you realise that it doesn’t necessarily change anything… it can leave you a little lost.”

“Mm,” Ron agreed quietly, enjoying the warmth from Severus’ body. “I’m sorry about yesterday. I was… just being a brat.”

“And I was cold without good reason,” Severus levelled.

“I was just upset because I’m going to miss you and your sarcastic venom.”

 

Severus gave a low laugh. “And I’ll miss your blunt humour and stupidly warm smile.”

“Don’t go,” Ron whispered.

“I’m going,” Severus re-asserted gently. “You don’t know how long I’ve waited to get off the Christmas holiday staff roster!”

 

Ron laughed then and turned to look at him, blue eyes dancing. “All right then. I’ll forgive you. Promise me you’ll think of me?”

“What’s this, getting romantic?” Severus raised an eyebrow and he smiled when Ron blushed. “And if I am?” Ron challenged.

“It’d be a first. I don’t think anyone’s ever been romantic with me… I am, uh, not normally the sort to tolerate such fancies.”

“All I asked was for you to think about me,” Ron cocked his head. “I didn’t ask for a letter every day and a token of your affection, or something to remember you by…” _Though that’s not a bad idea at all!_

 

Severus looked at him with an amused smirk and shook his head. “I don’t think you can particularly call any of our meetings romantic, do you?”

“Well… maybe not, but you were rather soft when you tied my hands above my head and kissed down them.”  
“Damn, I was going for erotic,” Severus sighed. “Must try harder, evidently.”

Ron snorted and leaned over and kissed him, every bit as sweetly as those on his arms had been. Severus closed his eyes automatically and opened his mouth. “Mmm, you get better with practice,” he winked at Ron.

“I have a rather talented teacher,” Ron looked to the ceiling, lips curling into a grin.

“Well, I’m not going to deny that.”

 

“Arrogant bastard.”

“Inexperienced whelp.”

“Ouch, that one hurt,” Ron chuckled and heaved a great sigh, feeling much better.

“So… are you talking to Harry again, what about Hermione?”

“Well, last night Harry and I had a dorm party, like we used to… of course, completely free of illegal booze and stolen food,” he added airily, and looked away. “And it was good, like it used to be… but I think certain things just break friendships. Hermione and I…”

“It hurts when people reject you,” Severus said astutely.

“Well, yeah,” Ron shrugged. “But it’s weird, you know…for eight years now I’ve been content to let that girl run my life, asked how high when she barked jump… and now she’s not here, and I can get up when I want, eat when I want… revise what I want, for fuck’s sake. I shouldn’t feel free… but I do. It’s pretty damn good.” He turned to Severus with a wide smile and bright eyes.

 

“All part of growing up,” Severus told him with a grimace. “God, that was patronising, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, but then you can’t help it… you’re an arse,” Ron winked.

“Such a wonderful love-hate relationship we have.”

“You’re pretty easy to talk to when you’re not biting my head off… I thought that the first night.”

“And so are you… you’re… pleasant company,” Severus teased him with the language of another time.

 

“So….” Ron looked at the clock on the mantelpiece. “How long would you keep me here if I were in detention, Severus?”

“Oh, at least until ten,” he mused. “You were a very naughty boy.”

 

“That sounds so beautifully wrong,” Ron snorted, and then he shifted to straddle Severus’ lap. He kissed him a little more roughly before and sank his hands into the raven hair. “You planning on washing this before you sod off to France?”

“Yes.”  
“Good, too greasy.”

“Well I’m not trying to impress anyone there,” Severus told him pointedly.

“I’m glad to hear it, but, you’re my responsibility now and I won’t have you tramping around looking like that,” Ron did an immaculate impression of his own mother.

“I thought I was the one in control here?” Severus asked with a playful challenge in his voice.

 

Sitting there with Ron over his lap in his office did not feel as sordid and wrong as he had once assumed it would. In fact, Severus realised as Ron kissed him again, he felt more right than he had in a long time. Possibly since before his change.

 

“How about we have a little farewell furore?”

“In English, please?” Ron made a face.

“How about I continue your, uh,” Severus ran a fingertip up Ron’s neck and lifted his chin, “Your education…”

 

“Here?” Ron asked excitedly.

“No, on the bloody front lawn of the castle,” Severus snapped with an exasperated shake of his head.

Ron laughed and kissed him. “I think I could stomach that…”

“I’m just trying to teach you these things so that when the time comes, you can take me in the bedroom,” Severus said quietly.  
“Not so you can put off taking me up the arse, then?” Ron blinked. “That’s… what it feels like.”

“Well excuse me for having some shred of virtue,” Severus muttered darkly. “Would you have preferred if I’d had you that first night, when you were drunk, with nothing to ease your pain?”  
“Oh, don’t start a fight,” Ron gave a tut. “I know what you’re doing. And I understand it. But you have to remember that I am eighteen. And horny. And impatient.”

 

“How horny?” Severus turned on his sultry tone and smiled.

“Those nights when you’ve made me come? I go back to my four-poster and I wank thinking about them. Even though I’ve already done it once that night…”

“Gods above, you _are_ horny,” Severus grinned, and spread his hands out over Ron’s back. “Okay. I think there’s just one more thing left to teach you before we christen my bed.”

 

“And what would that be?” Ron asked, voice dark with the promise of an orgasm.

“Stand up and strip,” Severus commanded.

 

Ron immediately climbed backwards and complied. He understood the nature of their sexual encounters and didn’t want to risk having them taken away by rebelling against his partner’s dominant nature. He could play the submissive well enough –and hell, it always, always felt good at the end. Letting his trousers puddle on the floor, he toed out of his shoes and socks, and looked at Severus as he disappeared into the body of his shirt and jumper as he tugged them over his head. When he emerged out of them, Severus was still watching, sat deeply back in the sofa, legs parted and feet flat on the floor. Flicking his eyes south, Ron couldn’t help but be satisfied at the bulge already showing in the Potions Master’s crotch.

  
“Like what you see?” Ron asked with a bat of his eyelashes, which made him feel ridiculous but in his very limited experience, it was something that worked.

“Give me a twirl and let me see all of you,” Severus commanded. “And, you appear to have forgotten to remove your underwear.”  
“I was only thinking of you, I thought you might like the pleasure,” Ron shrugged suggestively, and reached for the waistband.

  
Severus was up off the sofa before Ron knew it, and his hands were playing at the elastic, batting Ron’s away.

 

“You’re a very kind, thoughtful person,” Severus refused to use the word ‘sub, even though to all intents and purposes, that’s what Ron was. “And I will delight in taking these off once you’ve done as I asked.”

 

Ron acquiesced, revolving slowly, standing up to his full height, feeling his skin blaze under Severus’ eyes. When he faced him again he waited patiently.

“You are divine,” Severus breathed, enveloping him in his arms, hands caressing over the tattoo he could simply not get enough of on Ron’s back. “You just look… heavenly, anywhere, in any light. I feel I should paint you in gold and have you adorn my ceiling.”

 

Ron let the praise wash over him and closed his eyes, waiting for more. It always came. Severus did not disappoint him.

“If we were in such circles, I would paint you gold anyway,” Severus pressed a kiss to Ron’s bare shoulder. “And then I would parade you as mine and mine alone, and have you in front of everyone to hammer that point home in a very visual, sensual way.” He grabbed the waistband of Ron’s underwear and shoved it down, they fell down his legs and Ron stepped out of them.

 

He groaned aloud as he felt one hand palm over his erection, growing steadily with the molten words in his ear. Severus rubbed the heel of his hand into the heated cock, keeping his fingers bent back so they did not touch the shaft.

“Is that good?”

“Yeah,” Ron breathed, fighting hard to remain still and not to touch Severus.

“Now, we both know that’s appalling English,” Severus said in a warning tone.

“I mean, yes, it feels good… Sir…”

 

Severus swallowed on a dry throat at Ron’s unnecessary addition, but he couldn’t deny that he liked it. He would have liked it a whole lot more had they not been in a school, though.

 

“Did I tell you to call me by that name?” Severus raised an eyebrow. “And open your eyes.”

Ron did as he was bid and whispered, “No, I apologise.”

 

Severus was shocked at how easily the redhead was playing along –normally he laughed and joked, added his own sarcastic quips into the submissive answers, but tonight, it seemed, he was content to play his part.

“You are being remarkably reserved this evening,” Severus circled him with the intention to intimidate.

“Does that not please you?” Ron fought down his smile as Severus passed behind him.

“It pleases me very much, is there a reason?”

“I just thought I would give you a memorable occasion to take to Paris with you. So you stay out of the… uh, entertainment… you might be tempted to find there.”

 

Severus laughed then. “Oh, you would accuse me of being unfaithful?”  
“No,” Ron dismissed. “I am just making a point.”

“I am not unfaithful,” Severus whispered hotly in Ron’s ear. “That’s not how I choose to operate.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Ron felt one of Severus’ hands glide down his back and out onto his bottom, settling in the top of the cleft, and tensed in anticipation.

“Yes, our time tonight does involve this,” Severus let his finger sink into the warm heat, squeezed between the two perfectly rounded buttocks. “But not in the way you’d think.”

“You do not know what I was thinking,” Ron finally challenged him.

“Well what do you think I’ll be doing?” Severus removed his finger and pressed into Ron from behind, taking up his erection and pulling lightly at it.

“Well, there are only two things really left to go up there,” Ron breathed unevenly as the hand worked him. “Your tongue, and your dick.”

“So you do know more than you let on,” Severus nipped at his shoulder. “Tongue. And then you will be ready for the last one.”

 

Ron nearly exploded at the thought.

“You know what happens if you finish too early,” Severus warned. “And if you do I will not continue, and it will be utterly your loss.”

“I know,” Ron’s voice was strained as he fought to keep his groin under control.

“I want you to kneel on that sofa, with your head on your arms, your backside in the air. I will be casting few spells. You should be prepared for them.”

 

Shakily, Ron hastened to obey, caught up in the total headspin of his ‘education’; it was far preferable to anything school had taught him before then. He couldn’t believe his luck that this man, who was so powerful and sensual, wanted to spend his time imparting that wisdom to him, helping him enjoy it and his body. However they had reached that situation, whatever mistakes they had made, Ron could never regret anything in those moments. He crawled obediently onto the sofa and arranged himself as Severus had directed, feeling hideously exposed, but totally safe.

 

Waiting for Severus to act, Ron thought back over the brief discussion they had had the first meeting after they’d been in the Room of Requirement.

 

 _“Do you promise to trust me? I need you to trust me.”_ Ron remembered nodding and murmuring his assent. _“If I truly scare you, you must have a safe word with which you alert me to stop. Choose it. And you need an action for if I ever feel the need to remove your power of speech.”_ Ron had shuddered with bliss then at the very thought of Severus gagging him.

 

It had all moved so quickly, so fast, but he knew Severus was just trying to teach him how to handle the situation. If this was what Severus liked in the bedroom then Ron knew he had to get used to it quickly, if they were going to continue to meet and engage. He was often berated with the thought about how unfair it was that his wants and needs weren’t considered, but then he thought of how he had drawn them both into the union in the first place, and felt that karma had worked its magic there. He would be Severus’ submissive and take it with good grace. It wasn’t as if he was denied pleasure. No, there was abundant pleasure to be had in the hands of his Potions Master.

 

“Ready?” Severus was behind him, sitting demurely on the sofa, turned to Ron’s bare arse as if it were the most normal thing in the world to find on the cushions.

 

Ron fought down his giggle at that thought and answered, “If you want me to be.”

 

The spells which hit him then told him he had answered correctly. His arms and neck already ached from their new position, but he knew better than to complain. He concentrated on sorting through the spells –the tingling one was the hygiene spell which Severus had taught him, saying any wizard worth their wand had that in their arsenal; that way you were never presented with anything disgusting. Ron fully agreed. He also felt a squeezing around the base of his cock and he groaned, trying to ascertain what it was.

 

“I think you need a little help in controlling yourself,” Severus informed him. “The sofa is old but there is no need to dirty it earlier than necessary.”

“I understand,” Ron had never had a cock ring on him before and it felt alien and tight, but again, he was not going to complain.

 

Severus was almost beside himself at the way that he had directed Ron so easily, and the way the redhead had gone so willingly. He had a perfect view of him, spread wantonly open, all the way down his crease, the pink tight hole, dangling sac and heavy erection beyond it. His guilt should have kicked in the second Ron assumed the position, but it was marvellously absent and with a great surge of lust, Severus reached forward and place a hand a piece on Ron’s backside.

 

“Just relax, this will be new, but do not fight it,” Severus instructed him, lifting his thumb off the cheek to reach and press it gently against the tight hole. Ron hissed and lurched forward a little, as Severus noticed he always did at first contact, but then he fell silent.

“You can make as much noise as you’d like,” Severus assured him. “I’ve silenced the room, and I want to hear how much you enjoy this. Are you alright?”

 

“Going to defeat the purpose of the cock ring if you don’t hurry up,” Ron gasped, his straining prick accidentally grazing against the material of the seat cushion.

Severus laughed and leant forward; he licked a trail from the top of the crease all the way down, straight over Ron’s entrance, right down into his balls, which twitched and shrunk at the contact.

 

“How did that feel?” Severus asked in a husky voice.

“Fucking amazing,” Ron breathed.

 

Severus wasted no time in diving forward again, this time concentrating on just one area. He closed his lips around the puckered entrance and kissed it, a shout growled out in front of him and he grinned as he began to lick gently.

 

“Oh god Severus that’s… a… fuck!” Ron couldn’t get a grip on his vocabulary, because it felt like every nerve in his body was connected to the tissue Severus was caressing with his tongue. His dick was harder than he’d ever known it and he just knew he was leaking already. He groaned when his mind threw up the image of what it would be like to have someone sucking on his cock at the same time.

 

“What?” Severus pulled back. “Tell me.”

Ron’s face flushed and he was glad it was hidden. “I want you sucking me at the same time you do that.”

Severus gave a little laugh and tucked his hair behind his ears. “What a tragic shame I can’t be in two places at once, eh?” _Yet._ _Too much for one night._

 

Ron groaned in answer and Severus returned his lips to their job, creating a wider circle and making his tongue wash in blunt movements, scraping over the wrinkled flesh as roughly as he could when the whole area was being constantly lubricated by his saliva. Then, without warning, because he wanted to see how Ron would react, he pushed inward.

 

He delighted in the way Ron was so relaxed that Severus was able to enter without much resistance. The tip of his tongue inserted and his face fully buried between Ron’s parted cheeks, Severus couldn’t help reaching for his own erection in his trousers. Ron’s legs were trembling as they knelt and it would he highly unlikely for him to manage anything after Severus finally let him come, so he decided to help himself.

 

He formed his usual tight grip and stroked himself as roughly as he licked at Ron, delving straight into a proper rim job, seeing as Ron’s moans told him he was in no danger of causing distress.

 

“Severus you’re fucking amazing… your tongue… it’s…” Ron bit into his own arm, not particularly because he wanted to shut himself up, but just because he felt like it, and the pain he inflicted upon himself only added to the way he felt so utterly stretched out, and it would only take one ping to have him spiralling into oblivion.

 

Nose crushed in a place which shouldn’t have been pleasant, Severus thrust as much wet tongue as he could up Ron’s backside and relished in it. His spells were well aimed and specific, he was a realistic man and there was only one way this act was going to taste. And so he changed it with magic. He curled his tongue upward and dragged back out, Ron screamed in pleasure and begged him to do it again.  


Severus complied, because he loved the way that scream was desperate, and totally for him. He did not pull out completely, but latched his mouth down again and moved the muscle purposefully, lips forming a circle around the circle. His own leisurely wanking was fuelled by Ron’s cries and mewls.

 

“Severus, please… I want to…”  
“Come?” Severus slid out and breathed hot air over the damp, stretched flesh and Ron lurched forward.

“Need to come, please.”

“Why?”

“Because you feel so good, so good in me, please don’t stop… I’m yours and I want you to make me come.”

“I suppose that’s a satisfactory answer,” Severus drawled, and plunged his tongue back inward, closing his eyes to the way the body accepted him willingly. He let go of his own cock and reached between Ron’s legs, and tapped the cock ring once to dispel the enchantment.

 

The instant Ron was free, his orgasm built within his sac, a burning heat which had to come out, no matter how hard he wanted it to last for longer. There was a tongue in his arse and it felt so right, wet and massaging him back and forth on his inner walls. It was mind-blowing.

 

And then it was gone, and he was spinning. Severus had him on his back, legs splayed, and then he dived and took Ron to the root in his mouth. With a howl and his head thrown back, Ron arched upward and let go, shooting his load with hard thrusts. He closed his eyes and gripped at what he could, but his balls were so tight to his body and there was so much come spilling out of him he couldn’t find the energy to really do anything but groan and yell.

 

“Yes, fuck, Severus yesyesyes….”

 

Severus pulled off so that the remaining seed spilled down Ron’s own shaft which bobbed in the air, still stiff, red and angry looking. And then, as he had done on their very first night, he looked up at Ron’s face and cleaned the shaft of come, curling it away from the skin with precise, slow movements.

 

Ron reached down with one hand and gathered some of the pearly liquid on his fingers, and before Severus had time to steel himself, he himself was coming, watching Ron lick his own semen from his fingers.

 

“Ungghfuck,” Severus growled, gasping into the air as his climax shook him.

 

He wanted to flop forwards but that would land him on Ron’s now softening prick and orgasm-sensitive sac. But he felt boneless. He managed to direct his head to Ron’s thigh and looked at the genitals next to his face instead. A dirty, pornographic view. And one he found himself hoping he would see over and over again.

 

“Gods above, Sev…” Ron reached down a hand and laced it into Severus’ hair, loving the feel of that head on his thigh.

“Mmm?” Severus asked sleepily, though he knew he should sit up, he still had to pack.

“You’re amazing,” Ron proclaimed breathily. “I never knew I could… come that hard.”

Severus kissed the slightly hairy thigh he was resting on and pushed himself back up, realising he felt drunk when he had had nothing to drink at all.

 

“Thank you for the compliment,” he smiled. “Here.” Severus reached for his wand and performed cleaning spells over Ron’s body, and then himself.

“Enjoy it?” Ron smirked from where he still lay reclining on the sofa, gloriously nude and glowing in his sex aftermath.

“You’re not the only one who came hard,” Severus threw him a sultry glance and got to his feet, stretching.

  
“I want to see you out of those,” Ron breathed, watching him. So far the closest he’d got to undressing Severus fully was still in his mind, where the show was spectacular.

“Soon,” Severus promised him. “Get dressed.”

 

Ron got to his feet, hissing slightly at the way he was still stretched even from just Severus’ tongue. He buried the fears of what it would feel like after having an entire cock up there. Fear had no place in his bedroom, he’d decided. He stepped back into his underwear and trousers, buttoning them up and reaching for his shirt, which he made to do up, but Severus raised a hand and stopped him.

  
“What?” Ron smiled, as Severus circled him again.

“I don’t mean to sound like a broken record,” Severus murmured, his thin fingers grazing up Ron’s chest. “But you are so beautiful.” The fingers played with one of Ron’ nipples.

“You know what you forgot?” Ron said gently, and raised his wrist.

 

Since the Room of Requirement, Severus had been far too careful when drinking from Ron. Even then, as Ron mentioned it, a dark look crossed over his face.

“We learn from our mistakes,” Ron told him, reaching up to hook his arms around the man’s neck. “You will not make it again, Severus, I trust you.”

“I do not trust myself,” Severus admitted, but wrapped his arms around Ron’s thinly shirted back, feeling gentle muscles there. “I will never forgive myself.”  
“Well,” Ron kissed him. “I forgive you. And you need to drink from me now; you won’t see me for… two weeks…”

 

“Don’t get clingy,” Severus warned him. “Nothing will drive me off faster…”

Ron took a deep breath and nodded. “I’m fine.”

“You aren’t,” Severus murmured. “I can tell in your eyes. Are you really so attached to me?”

“I suppose I am,” Ron smiled. “But you need to go to Paris, and I respect that.”

“I will miss you,” Severus said softly.

“Not nearly as much as I will miss you,” Ron said grimly. “Now, come on. Have a drink. Whilst my cock’s too spent to wake up again.”  


Severus gave a dark chuckle and was soon feeding from Ron’s neck. Despite Ron’s comment that he was too spent to react, there was an erection pressing up against Severus’ front and he grinned into Ron’s throat. He detached when he felt comfortable and summoned a large goblet of the standard blood replenisher.

 

“I’m scared you’ll become resistant to the other,” he explained as he handed it to Ron. “So you should take this one once in a while, to keep your body guessing.”

Ron shrugged and stepped away to drink the foul concoction. “God I hate this stuff, wish it tasted a bit better.”

“So I’m guessing you don’t like spinach and such?” Severus moved to his open suitcase and folded some underwear into it.

“Are you folding underwear?” Ron asked dubiously.

“Yes… is that abnormal?”  
“Who cares if your undies are creased?” Ron laughed into his goblet.

“I care,” Severus glowered.

“God forbid we should ever live together,” the face Ron made was dubious and Severus had to laugh.

“It sounds as though we would forever be at one another’s throats."

“And not just in the obvious way,” there was a wink with that statement.

“Oh, be quiet. So, spinach and such, not for you?”  
“I don’t mind it. The taste of this is much stronger. Spinach is alright in something, but Christ, not steamed on its own.”  


“We have so much to learn about one another,” Severus commented, reaching for some robes.

“Mmm,” Ron drained the rest of the potion and set the goblet down on the coffee table. “Am I allowed to get dressed now?”

“No,” Severus ruled. “Sit down on that sofa exactly as you are, and keep me company whilst I pack. We still have an hour and a half left of your detention. And because your feet are now bare they can go on the coffee table, should you feel the need.”

 

Ron laughed and sat down, immediately lifting his bare feet onto the low table and sighing as he relaxed.

“You have nice feet,” Severus commented, watching him.

“If you say so,” Ron yawned. “They’re just feet.”

 

Severus packed in silence for fifteen minutes before he turned to Ron, nearly finished and about to suggest they have some wine, when he noticed the redhead had let his head fall back on the sofa and had fallen asleep, mouth open. With a smile, Severus sank down on the sofa next him and watched him, the way his chest rose and fell, and his eyelids fluttered, sending long red eyelashes across freckled cheekbones.

 

“I know you have a complex with me telling you this,” Severus whispered, reaching out his fingers to caress Ron’s brow. “But you are just so… heavenly.”

“I do not have a complex,” Ron groused, keeping his eyes shut.

“And you’re also very good at pretending to be asleep,” Severus growled.  
“Well yeah. You would never have cried yourself out in the ROR if I hadn’t pretended to be asleep,” Ron cracked open a sly eye and looked sideways at Severus, who blanched white.

 

“You… knew?”

Ron opened both eyes and took Severus’ hands in his, and raised them to his lips. “I knew. But you were so upset, and I was so tired, talking could have hurt you more. And I just thought you needed it, so I kept quiet and let you get it out of your system.”

 

Severus looked at him with an awed gaze and Ron actually blushed. “That is the second time you’ve forgiven me an embarrassing situation without commenting,” Severus whispered. “Why do you?”

 

Ron leaned close and smiled. “Because everyone needs someone who is there for them unconditionally, and I don’t think you have that. And so, you can do whatever, Severus. Come too early, cry yourself through pain, I promise you. Whatever: I’m here.”

Severus managed a tight smile and bowed his face. “You award me too much.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” Ron murmured. “Kiss me.”

 

Severus did, softly and chastely, so different to the way they had been just minutes before on the same sofa.

“I like it both ways,” Ron assured him, as though he had read Severus’ mind.

“Good,” Severus pecked him on the end of the nose and got to his feet, before disappearing into his bedroom, leaving Ron confused on the sofa. When Severus came back, he was holding something. He took a deep breath, as if steeling himself for a rejection, and handed the object to Ron.

“What’s this?” Ron frowned.

“Something to remember me by,” Severus turned away to hide his burning face.

 

_You can command him in the bedroom but faced with something like this you’re nearing a pile of ashes…_

 

Ron looked at what he held in his hand, which turned out to be an old, thin t-shirt. He raised it to his nose and inhaled, and the scent was undeniably Severus. He looked up questioningly, not removing the material from his nose.

 

“When I sleep, I sleep in that. I’ve had it since I was at school. I know… it’s a Slytherin one, but… you have a Slytherin in your life now, and you should remember that.”

 

Ron was lost for words. He didn’t bother to try and find any, either. He just buried his face in his Professor’s nightwear and lost himself.


	7. Sex On Fire

“It is wonderful to have you here again.”

 

Severus looked up from the paper he was trying to read –it was all in French, so he wasn’t getting particularly far.

 

The person talking to him was someone who had been invaluable to him in his first year as a vampire. Why that striking female had ever alighted upon him as a saviour, Severus had never quite figured out, but it had only taken a matter of days before he had been immensely grateful for her friendship and guidance.

 

“It’s nice to be here,” Severus gave her a small smile and raised his wine glass in honour.

“Merry Christmas,” Bridgette looked at the clock, as it chimed midnight. “How are you holding up with the potions these days?”

“They’re as effective as ever, thankfully.”

 

“Severus, forgive me,” Bridgette said. “You’ve been here almost a week and you haven’t been yourself. Last night when we were out for drinks with Christos and the lads you barely even finished your second pint. Has something changed? Have you… slipped back into difficulty?”

“No,” he answered her honestly. “I promise you, those dark times are gone. And I did not finish my pint because it tasted like the dregs of the barrel.”  
“Good. I don’t like having so much distance between us, Severus, where I cannot watch over you like I once did.”

“I would come back to you if I felt myself heading back…”

 

She gave him a gentle smile and flicked her platinum blonde hair over her shoulder. “Then what’s different? If you’re not suicidally depressed, Severus, what’s got you so quiet?”

 

Severus nervously shifted in his seat. He knew the time would have to arrive when he talked to his mentor about everything that was happening back in England with Ron, but he thought he would never be ready for it. As gentle as she was, she had a temper and, as Severus had learnt many times to his cost, a sting in the slap of her hand and a quick wand.

 

She had been turned at least a hundred years before him, when she was just twenty-two. So her youthful face was utterly deceiving of her power. Severus would never get over just how much she reminded him of the Malfoys. _A lot bloody nicer though._

 

“I have someone waiting for me in England,” Severus said delicately, looking at his wine.

“Oh, what’s this? The Dark Prince of The Scary Dungeons has found love at last?” She asked with a definite note of teasing in her tone.

 

He sighed and looked at her wearily.

 

“I sense a tale coming on,” she dropped down into her seat and looked at him. “Don’t keep me waiting; I’m enraged you kept this from me for nearly a week, Severus! You know how much I feel this would be easier on you if you were not alone. So… Who is it?”

 

“He is… uh…” Severus hated the way he fumbled over the words. He was not an idiot and he could hold his own in conversation perfectly well, but talking to his mentor he felt like a disobedient child. “He is a mortal. Eighteen. One of my students.”

 

“What a thrilling start,” she stared at him. “What happened to your scrupulous morals, Severus, not feeding on your so beautifully placed supply of fresh blood?”

 

“It’s not what you think,” Severus said firmly. “He is actually nearly nineteen, and only an honorary student. His exams were interrupted by outside forces and he is merely taking them a second time round. He is not really bound like the other students.”

“So how on earth did this happen?” Severus could tell from the tone of her voice she was displeased.

 

He detailed the first night they had spent together, and what Ron had issued, and how his chance to Obliviate him had been taken away.

 

“And what is his name?” Bridgette asked.

“Ron.”

“Ugly,” she made a face. “Find a sexier nickname.”

 

Severus cracked a smile before he could stop himself.

  
“Ah, so you already have… Well, Severus. I’m not going to congratulate you. You seem to have landed yourself deep in the quagmire with this one. When do you plan to turn him?”  
“I don’t,” Severus answered stonily.

“Then you are a fool,” she told him frankly. “Nothing good can come of this redhead remaining mortal, Severus. You will half-kill him one day and then you will never trust yourself again.”

 

Severus couldn’t find the words to say he had already done such a thing, but then he knew she would glean as much from his silence.

  
“Dear _Merlin_ , Severus. And this is all in what, three weeks? And you’re usually so slow and methodical.”

“It has developed with a speed I could not have anticipated.”

“You should have killed him when you had the chance,” Bridgette said softly, her eyes glittering.

“No!” Severus exclaimed, and he glared at her.

 

She looked at him with assessing eyes and leaned back in her chair. “And now, Severus, how are you coping without him? Do you miss your new little toy?”

 

The burn in Severus’ arms was there, but it was tolerable. It even died a little when Severus took the time to think of Ron, imagine them together and know that Ron was waiting for him to return. He was glad to have been proved right on his estimation.

 

“You miss him,” she filled the silence for him with a patronising nod. “Oh, Severus, what have you gone and done…” she finished on a sigh. “Really, you should have killed him, drained him of his blood and then you would have been free.”

“I am not sure that I would have been,” Severus braced himself to raise the next topic. “I… We seem to be drawn to each other in ways which the basic Invitation Lore, as I know it, cannot explain. And I don’t really think it’s explained by the Protection Lore, either…”

“Protection lore?” There was a dangerous tang in her voice.

 

Severus sighed. “When I nearly killed him… we were in such a setting that I was able to heal him and nurse him.”

“It just gets worse,” the blonde waved an angry hand. “Severus, for the love of Merlin –do you remember nothing of what I’ve taught you? This is unbelievable!”

“I know,” Severus growled. “I know I’ve been foolish. But there feels like there is more, and for the love of me I can’t place what. With him I feel so… alive.”  
“Happy?” Bridgette supplied.

“Yes.”

“You still have so much to learn,” she sighed. “You’ve bound yourself to him now. This can only go downhill.”  
“Why?” Severus found himself annoyed with her pessimism, even though it was usually the reason he liked her.

 

“Oh, only _all_ the reasons why vampires should never fall in love with a mortal they don’t intend to turn,” she shot sarcastically. “Severus, please. You are an intelligent man.”  
“I have explained all this to him and more,” Severus shrugged. “And he knows the risks, and so do I. But there is something more between us and it stops us from ceasing contact. When I do not drink from him, I am submitted to torment in my arms.”  
“What kind of torment?” She asked, grey eyes flickering to his covered limbs.

“Thousands of tiny knives scraping away at my flesh,” Severus tried to accurately describe it. “And when I drink from him, it disappears. The first time, when I was in denial of all of this, I physically hurt myself in my slumber to get it to stop. Nothing makes it stop, except him.”

 

Bridgette frowned at him. “You _are_ right. That is not normal.”

“So I am right in thinking there is more to this than the Invitation and Protection Lores?”

 

She sighed. “The Invitation was the beginning, yes. Offering an open-ended Invitation, that foolish little boy of yours has bonded himself to you indefinitely, just because he has done the most basic thing in saying ‘drink from me’. You know the Lore does not permit you to ignore such an invitation. Impudent little brat… this is why we are condemned by so many, Severus, people play with fire and then they are burned when they realise their mistake.”

 

“Less of the insults, if you please,” Severus was consumed with surprising fiery anger as she insulted Ron.

 

“The protection…” she ignored him. “Your own doing and I am thoroughly ashamed at you, Severus. Honestly. But yes. In saving the boy from the injuries you inflicted upon him, you will have invoked magic which strengthens your need to care for him, and the way that you are driven to protect him. It is very old, very powerful… and I imagine, if I were to call him a foolish little boy many more times you would be pushed into a rage.”

 

Severus was surprised that the protection lore applied to something as simple as a few insults, and Bridgette shook her head at him.

 

“You see, you have so much to learn, Severus. Why on earth didn’t you come to me sooner?”

“I did not want to leave him,” Severus answered truthfully.

“And now? What about the pain in your arms now, Severus?”

“It’s there but bearable. I assume that is because I have stopped mentally denying him.”

“Probably, though it gives me great comfort to hear you once retained a shred of sensibility over the matter, even if it is now gone.”

 

She rose to her feet and paced up and down her living room, throwing Severus filthy glances every few steps.

 

“You do not know the inane complications the Invitation Lore can throw up,” she said finally, stopping facing him.

“Such as?”

 

She heaved a sigh and turned to a bookcase on the side, fingers trailing over the spines of the books until she found what she was looking for. Pulling out a mouldy old volume, she turned back to Severus.

 

He looked at the title. “God, ‘The Love Affairs of the Immortal’… do you think your trashy vampire porn is going to help?”

“Do _not_ try me,” Bridgette hissed and resumed her seat, where she began flicking through the pages; Severus watched the thin set of her mouth and knew that she was, as he had expected, truly livid with him for his actions.

 

_Someone has to be. Because you’ve failed to be angry at yourself!_

 

“Ah, here we are. Let me read it to you:

 

 _‘The world of Invitation Lore is murky when it comes to the unpredictable nature of the mortal heart. With great reason, the two races rarely mix. Mortals stumble unknowingly into binding which they cannot control, and factors are critical which they may_ have _no discernable knowledge about’.”_

“Well, yes,” Severus frowned. “I knew that much.”

“Tell me about your Ron,” She said the name disdainfully. “Tell me about him, and his temperament.”

“He’s a cocky little sod,” Severus couldn’t help his small smile. “Tenacious, one would certainly say.”  
“Is it teenage bravado?” Bridgette asked, closing the book but keeping her finger in the page.

“To an extent, I suppose,” Severus gave a little shrug. “But he is also very unique, very accepting… he is very forgiving when he should not be, though he does have issues with jealousy.”

“How so?”

“Well, he was rather concerned as to what type of ‘friend’ you might be to me, and did not take kindly to being abandoned for two weeks.”

 

She smiled at Severus then. “Friendships change, I suppose.” The hint of suggestion was in her tone and Severus rolled his eyes.

“Don’t you have enough boyfriends?”

“I like to regard you as the one that got away,” she laughed. “And you do know how I like a challenge…”

“Try as much as you like,” Severus told her. “You will never succeed. And remember that it was your penchant for older men that saw you sitting as you are today.”  
“A fair point,” Bridgette conceded. “But where will your penchant for this redhead see you sitting in a hundred years? Certainly not with him. He will probably be dead.”

“Do not talk of such things,” Severus asked of her.

 

She shook her head at his attachment. “Anyway. Back to him. Tell me about him, what are his family like? Does he have many friends?”  
“Where are you going with this?” Severus frowned.  
“Just tell me, please.”

“He is from a big family, seven children, and he is the second-youngest, and the last boy. His friends are… somewhat… well. I was going to keep this from you, because it will only serve to make you angrier… but his best friend is Harry Potter.”

“You’re right, that does make me angrier. Severus, have you lost your mind?! This young man has to still be high profile. I know him now; I remember the pictures from the papers.”

 

“Do you approve?” Severus tried to waylay her.  
“No, I don’t like redheads,” she glared at him. “So, anyway, would you say that Ron might feel in anyway… hard done by? Would you say he has self-esteem issues?”

 

Severus thought on that. It was plain to see that beneath Ron’s tough exterior he was insecure. Severus had told him time and time again he didn’t have time for such insecurity.

  
“He is insecure,” Severus told her. “But then what teenager is not?”  
“Do you feel that it could run a little more deeply than the usual, though? Think about it, Severus. Big family, important friends… if that self-esteem problem and any kind of resentment lingered deep in his heart…”  


“Are you implying what I think you’re implying?” Severus’ eyes flew wide.

 

Bridgette took that moment to flick the book open and find another passage.

 

“ _Although rarely documented due to the sporadic nature of such relationships, there are cases of deep emotions causing an overlay to the most basic of Invitation Lores. Should the mortal in question feel deeply enough, their issues will uniquely shape the Lore for their bonded pair.”_

“So, Severus, would you say that your little beau has those deep-seated emotional issues?”  
“It’s been three weeks, Bridge, how should I know the inner workings of his mind?”

“Think, Severus, this is beyond consequential.”

 

Severus desperately thought for an answer.

 

“Oh, wake up, you idiot!” She finally snapped, her patience vanishing, and she threw the book at him, which missed and landed on the carpet. “Think about it. He comes from a family of seven kids; he’s got friends who have done big things. Maybe it’s because I’m looking at this from the outside, I can see how he might feel, I don’t know. But have you ever thought that maybe this kid just wants someone who wants _him_ and not the rest? That his need to be _wanted_ might well have laced into the Lore?”

 

Severus looked at her, gaping unbecomingly like a fish.

 

_Sweet Salazar…he…_

 

“Yes, I think I’m right,” Bridgette muttered. “You are a complete fool, Severus. I’d slap you but there’s a fat lot of good it’ll do now. This boy’s want is burned into you. He wants you to want him, and so the Lore has made it so if you ever try to _not_ want him, or try to deny yourself him, you are physically punished and therefore driven to him. This, Severus, THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD HAVE FOUND YOURSELF A NICE BLOODY VAMPIRE!”

 

Her shouting made him cringe but he watched as she flew to her feet and resumed her pacing. To occupy himself he levitated the book she’d thrown onto the nearest table whilst he thought about the revelation of what exactly had happened between them.

 

“Do you think…” Severus asked, and had to clear his throat. “Do you think that he wanted me specifically?”

“Not necessarily. But he was drunk when you were first together… alcohol opens up the mortal soul in a way which is entirely too free. His feelings must have been at the surface when you had him. The magic in the lore would have still been mutating at the time you continued acting after drinking. I think it is more likely that he just wanted someone, anyone.”

 

“And there I was,” Severus breathed, and closed his eyes.

“Preposterously so, yes.”

“I was just…”

“There is no justification that you can make to me for landing yourself in this mess, gods above, Severus, why on earth did you ever even open your mouth? Your immortality is not a joke or a toy with which to scare truant students!” she scorned him coldly. Then she sighed yet again and said, “So come on. Do you love him yet?”

“No,” Severus murmured. “Though I know it will come.”

“And does he love you?”

“He has not said if he does.”

 

“How are you playing this?” She asked, walking closer. “How are you dealing with your dominant nature… you are one of the most prevailing I have ever seen… you know what they say, if the person was a dom before they were turned, Merlin help them when they’re turned… It is just what we are. We outrank the humans with our enhanced senses, it is only natural we should act dominantly… but your redhead probably doesn’t know what’s hit him.”

“I am mainly keeping it to the bedroom,” Severus said quietly. “I do not feel the need to control him out of it.”

  
“Yet,” Bridgette said airily. “You will want him to bend to your will eventually.”

“Never,” Severus glared at her. “I will not stop him from having a life, just as I do not intend to stop this… relationship from letting me have one.”  
“Which, of course, is why you came all the way here, instead of owling me and cancelling,” she winked.

“You confuse me,” Severus shook his head. “One minute you’re treating me like the village dunce and the next you imply I should not have left him.”

 

“Well, you _are_ a dunce, but no, you should not have left him. Go home to him, Severus. Why make this harder than it already is? I have had your company for nearly a week but you are not yourself. You are really with him, I know it.”

 

“The Lore… it’s making us want each other mutually, in a way which is not necessarily tied to drinking?”

“God knows what the bloody Lore is doing, Severus,” she placed her hand on his shoulder. “Probably, old magic is old magic and will do what it does. With his dodgy Invitation, and your _blasted_ Protection, I’d say anything’s just about possible.”

 

Severus rose to his feet. “I’ll go, if you are sure you do not mind?”

“Just don’t leave it so long next time? I miss you.” She gave him a familial embrace. “And you will need me through this. Do not hesitate if you need help, Severus. I do not want to hold your hand through another depression if you make the mistake of hurting him beyond your repair, so use me before you make such an error. The circumstances are different now, you are used to your condition, but I doubt you would hurt any less should there be major upheaval so soon after your change… and losing him, Severus, I think it would rather count as that.”

 

“Of course,” Severus returned her embrace, guiltily wondering what Ron would think if he could see them.

“Have you had him yet?” She asked conversationally. “Properly I mean?”

“No,” Severus pulled back, cheeks colouring.

“You old-fashioned lunatic,” she sighed. “I think you should go home and give him a Christmas present, personally.”

 

He rolled his eyes and made to leave the room, but she stopped him.

“Severus… old magic can be countered with old magic.”

“In what ways? I researched but-”

“Ways which I would not chance to put an eighteen-year-old though,” she said sadly. “Be discreet. If you are in danger, you must come to me.”

 

***

Ron thought there was only one word with which he could describe spending Christmas alone at Hogwarts –awful. _Fucking awful._

 

He had never been more bored in his entire life. He had cleared all of his holiday homework within the first three days, and had made such headway into his specialist NEWT project that he could do no more until he was able to meet with McGonagall to discuss it further. So he really had nothing to do. Normally he would have loved the free time, and spent it playing chess, or flying with Harry. But Harry was not there.

 

There were only two other Gryffindors staying in the tower and they were both second years and shy around him. He hadn’t spoken an actual word to anyone in what felt like days until lunchtime, and he had wondered if his voice would disappear without use.

 

That particular moment saw him looking out at the snowy Hogwarts grounds. He was full from Christmas dinner and the four rounds of chocolate log that McGonagall seemed to think he needed.

 

 _Bloody woman. At the sherry again._ She had definitely wobbled when she finally left the Christmas lunch table clutching her cracker hat to her head. Ron smiled slightly as he thought back over what Dumbledore had said.

 

_“It’s not the same without Severus here snarling at us all for wearing these. I shall never let him have another Christmas off again, I don’t think.”_

 

Ron walked down the castle steps and started making a trench through the snow. He’d tucked his jeans into his boots and waterproofed them, but it didn’t really stop the cold, and his feet were soon numb. He headed towards the lake and stopped beneath one of the large trees which lined the shore nearest the castle.

 

_Just doesn’t seem right without a million snowballs in the air and Harry making his usual jokes about yellow snow._

Determined that his loneliness would not get the better of him, Ron dropped to his knees and started making the body of a snowman. Flakes started to fall from the sky again as he worked, gently building up the ball so he could roll it over the snow. Soon it was big enough thanks to the abundance of white powder that he could work on the mid-section.

 

_Too fast. I’m going to be back inside bored out of my head before I know it._

And fifteen minutes later he was finished. His snowman had stones for eyes, mouth and coat buttons, twigs for arms and a transfigured carrot for a nose.

 

Ron stood back to admire his work, thinking on how he needed a scarf and a hat for the snow creation to be complete. _He’ll just have to be indecently naked. Sorry mate._

 

Snow was still falling and Ron brushed some absentmindedly off his eyelashes, it annoyed him clogging his peripheral vision.

 

“Doesn’t he need a scarf?”

 

Ron yelled in fright at the low voice which came out of thin air next to him and he lost his footing in the chunky snow. He was on his back before he knew it, snow falling into his face as he blinked up at his company. Ron was too shocked to reprimand the person for sneaking up on him.

 

_Again._

  
“Severus?” Ron frowned, the cold permeating his coat and jeans and making his hips ache. “What are… you’re meant…”

“Do you need a hand?” Severus smirked, reaching out a leather-gloved hand to hoist Ron off the floor.

 

Upright again, his back completely covered in snow, Ron was gaping at Severus, barely able to believe it.

“But you… you’re meant to be in Paris!”

“Paris was without,” Severus informed him.

“Without what?” Ron frowned, confused.

 

Severus did not drop the hand he had used to pull Ron off the floor. “You.”

 

Ron wanted to throw his arms around the man and hug him senseless, but even he could see that doing so in the middle of the school grounds would be a stupid move.

 

“I want you to give me half an hour, and then I want you to come to my rooms,” Severus said. “Wait until I get in the castle, then follow, but make sure you do a detour once you’re in, do not let it look like you are coming to me. I need to alert the Headmaster of my return and secure our privacy for the… evening. I will of course be feigning the need for rest after travelling.”

 

Ron gave him an excited smirk and nodded. “I’ll make him a wife before coming in,” he jerked his head at the snowman.

“It wouldn’t do for him to be lonely,” Severus agreed, and turned and strode away.

 

***

Severus was fully unpacked and had the fire roaring when he heard the gentle tap on his door. He flew to it and pulled it open; glad to see it was Ron and nobody else. The redhead entered, the door was shut, and then they faced one another.

 

If someone had observed them, they would have been hard pushed to decide on who pounced first. The only thing that would have been crystal clear was that suddenly the two men were wrapped around one another, kissing ferociously.

 

Ron growled in relief to Severus’ mouth, wrapping his arms tightly around the man’s torso, whilst Severus settled locked fingers at the base of Ron’s spine, holding him close. Ron gave a cheeky suck at Severus’ tongue and found himself lowered backwards for his nerve, suspended in the arms of the man who had seemingly cut short his holiday just for him.

 

“Gods I’ve missed those lips,” Severus broke off, eyes drinking in the way he had caused pink to turn assaulted red, and the way the lips pouted slightly, missing the presence of his own.

“And I’ve missed yours…” Ron smiled.

 

“I have a lot to tell you,” Severus whispered down to him, and pulled Ron upright again. “But first… I think there is something that we should do.”

“How was it?” Ron asked instantly, face falling. “Did you hurt yourself again, Severus? Did you go loopy?”

“No, I did not go mad. But I wasn’t talking about drinking from you,” Severus reached up and brushed Ron’s hair away from his eyes. “No. There is something else we can indulge in for a lazy Christmas afternoon, don’t you think?”

 

Ron looked at the one quirked eyebrow and nearly wet himself with excitement. “You mean we can finally…?”

 

Severus didn’t answer that. He turned and placed an extra lot of protection spells on the door to his rooms, and cast more silencing spells. Then, he took Ron’s hand and led him to the corner of his office and into his bedroom.

 

Ron had never been in there before and he was surprised by what he found. It was thickly carpeted and warm, despite the fact they were stuck beneath a stone castle. The bed was the main feature.

 

“Why do you have such a nice bed if you barely sleep?” Ron wondered aloud.

“I wasn’t always a vampire,” Severus reminded him with a smile, and dropped Ron’s hand.

“I guess,” Ron’s eyes trailed over the bed again. It was large; a four-poster like it seemed all beds within the castle were. But instead of being dark, it was made of a honey coloured oak wood, and the curtains were of a champagne gold, the cover matched and the sheets were cream and as smooth as those in the Room of Requirement had been.

  
“I take it that your open mouth indicates your approval?” Severus snorted, moving to the side of the magnificent bed.

“If I had a bed like that I wouldn’t bother getting up of a morning,” Ron grinned broadly.

“I always felt the same way,” Severus leant against one of the bed posts. “I have a question for you.”  
“Yeah?” Ron looked back from where he’d been peering around the room.

“Why are you still dressed?” Severus cocked his head and enjoyed Ron’s blush. “No matter. There are spells.”

 

He flicked his wand and Ron found himself all of a sudden exposed to the room, and although it was warm both his nipples and his groin reacted to the loss of his thick jumper and coat. “Happy now?” he asked.

“Undoubtedly so,” Severus smirked.

“So come on then, going to spell yourself?” Ron asked pointedly –it felt like he had been waiting forever for this. “Or are you going to be really cruel and fuck me fully dressed? You’re beginning to make me wonder what you’re hiding…”

 

“I’m not hiding anything. I merely thought you might like to have the pleasure of doing it, but if you’d rather I-”

“Nonononono!” Ron backtracked, and bounded across the room, ignoring the way his freely hanging genitalia bounced. “I’ll do it.”

 

Ron did not waste any more time. It felt like forever they’d been dancing around one another, the final conclusion lingering just out of reach. He started at Severus’ neck, unbuttoning the collar of his robes with slow fingers –if he rushed he would just mess up and cause himself more delay.

 

Severus stood and let him slowly release his body, impressed by Ron’s patience though he knew it was a front, because the redhead’s breath was quick and his eyes were eager.

 

“Why do you wear such bloody difficult robes?” Ron muttered, and finally managed to reach Severus’ waist. He pushed open the breast of the robe and was met with a pale chest, which housed two deep pink nipples, a heavy smattering of hair as black as that on Severus’ head, and led to a surprisingly flat stomach. Another line of dark hair ran down from the man’s navel into the robe left to be unbuttoned. Ron tentatively touched a hand to defined collarbones and traced them with his fingers.

 

“Christ, don’t come yet, you’ve got a lot more to uncover,” Severus needled him, and Ron shook his head slightly.

“I know,” he grinned, and returned his hands to releasing Severus from this cloth prison.

 

By the time the robe was gone, and Severus’ arms were free, Ron was completely hard and with every touch of his fingertips of bare flesh, he felt like he got even more so.

“What, no comment?” Severus asked. “Unlike you…”  
“I’m not finished,” Ron said through gritted teeth and popped open the button on Severus’ waistband with one finger.  
“You’re going to have to teach me how to do that,” Severus laughed.

“It’s easy, and trust me, I’ve not exactly had my fair share of button-popping moments, have I?” He grinned and eased his fingers inside the material, before sliding them back out and sending them sailing to the floor. Severus stepped out of them.

 

Ron looked him in the eye and sent the man’s underwear the same way, and then, with a racing heart, took a step back to take in the finally fully naked form of his lover.

 

“Well, what you expected?” Severus asked of him.

“Turn around,” Ron smirked, remembering the way that he always had to parade for Severus. “Seeing as this is the first time and all, you owe me…”  
“I suppose I do, having kept you in the dark long enough,” Severus side, and slowly turned, kicking away his fallen clothes as he did so.

 

Ron watched and saw the thin form turn, appreciating the wiry strength in the arms and legs; manly hips with obvious narrowness and defined inwardly curving skin off the hipbones; the small but pert backside; hairy legs, somewhat skinny, but had they been anything other they would have looked ridiculous. The proportions of the man’s legs were fascinating -they seemed to go on forever. _Never thought I’d describe Severus Snape as leggy, but Merlin’s balls, he is._ Long feet attached at the ankle and completed the line up.

 

“I’ve never been much to look at,” Severus finally seemed to be a little uncomfortable at his scrutiny.

“Nobody thinks they’re much to look at,” Ron dismissed him. “But what their partners think is a completely different story.”  
“And what does my partner think?” Severus sat down on the bed.

 

Ron walked close to him and lifted Severus’ chin so he could kiss him. “That it was worth the wait.”  
“You’re learning,” Severus winked, and in one swift movement leapt forward and threw Ron down on the bed, and crawled over him.

 

There was a moment, as their bare bodies brushed together, that they both fought down gasps. They caught each other’s eyes and smiled.

“I suppose now’s not the time to be all shy and virginal,” Ron whispered, as Severus lowered down on him and completely covered Ron’s body with his own.

“You can be that if you need to be, it won’t change what I plan to do to you…” Severus told him with a soft kiss to his lips. “This will be strange, the first time, and it will hurt.”

“I know that,” Ron murmured.

“Are you scared?”

“If I said yes, would you think less of me?”

“No,” Severus laughed gently, and reached up to stroke Ron’s hair.

“I have a…” Ron trailed off and looked away.

“What?” Severus frowned.

“Don’t drink from me,” Ron requested, and looked back, his eyes full of pleading.

 

Severus looked at him for a moment. “Why not?”

“Because then… this is about more than blood, and invitations,” Ron whispered.

“Okay,” Severus gave a swift nod. “Now. I’ve waited long enough and so have you. Do you mind if I play with you a little first?”

 

Ron pretended to think about it and Severus growled his annoyance whilst he rolled off the younger man.

 

“Come here,” he commanded, and mostly effortlessly managed to arrange Ron so that he was in one end corner of the bed, kneeling with his back to the bedpost. Severus reached for his wand and knew Ron watched every movement of his body, drinking it in, like a hungry man forced to watch another eat.

 

“When I said play with you,” Severus told him, running his wand down Ron’s bare chest. “I meant it subjectively, of course.” He flicked the wand and watched with a satisfied smirk as Ron’s arms were drawn together behind him and tied to the bedpost. Another flick and his ankles were secured in the same way, trapping his lithe body in the kneeling position.

 

“Do I need to bind this up as well?” Severus gave a small tap at Ron’s cock.

“That depends what you’re going to do,” Ron somehow managed to stop his voice from wobbling.

“Oh, not very much… but it’s more than you’ll have seen before, and you do seem so very, very eager…”

“Fine,” Ron spat, hating the way his cock betrayed him by leaking his first drops of pre-come when Severus had barely touched him.

“Oh no, you think you can handle it, be my guest,” Severus changed tack and moved away from Ron to lie in the centre of the large bed.

 

He positioned a pillow beneath his hips and bent his knees, keeping his feet flat on the bed. His back and head were supported by the many pillows up by the headboard. And Ron had an absolutely scorching view of everything –Severus could tell that from the way he was staring.

“I did not mean this to turn into a lesson in self control, but you seem to think you don’t need one,” Severus told him. He summoned a jar of lubricant from the bedside table and caught it.

“Oh Merlin are you going to…” Ron watched as two long fingers, fingers that he was used to assaulting _him_ , dipped into the gel-like substance and were coated.

  
Severus didn’t answer him. He took his uncoated hand and wrapped it around his half interested cock. He kept his eyes on Ron’s form, tied to his bedpost, cock hard and prominent before him. That sight alone was enough to make him fill up, but he stroked languidly because the point of his show was not for him to get off, but for Ron to lose control. _And his inhibitions._

 

Ron watched him stroking at his cock, which was longer but thinner than Ron’s own, set in a deep thatch of black curls with heavy balls trailing down in between Severus’ spread legs. It was tantalising him even further than he already had been tantalised, and the thought of breaking free to touch and taste that beautiful body made him yank against his restraints and groan.

 

“Patience,” Severus snapped at him with a smirk. He reached down with his lubricated fingers and traced his own entrance with them. Long arms meant he was able to reach without much difficulty, though the pillow raising his hips made it easier. Wrangling his cock upright, he pumped it a few times, threw in a gasp for Ron’s benefit, and then pressed into himself with one finger.

 

Ron gulped as he watched that finger sink into the tight heat, all the way up to the second knuckle.

“What does it feel like?” The whisper escaped him before he could help it; he was so desperate to touch Severus.

Severus hissed and arched upwards, clenching around his own finger. “Why, do you want me to finger you? Instead of fucking you...”  
“No!” Ron blurted. “I just… I can never touch you and now you’re whoring yourself in front of me and it’s driving me…”

“Mad? It’s meant to,” Severus was rendered speechless after that as he located his own prostate and had a merry few minutes scraping over it, making his cock leak with excitement.

 

Only when he heard the strangled groan from the end of the bed did he slide out his finger, and then re-entered himself with two, which made him moan out at the tightness.

 

“Please, Severus…” Ron begged. “Let me out of this… I can’t watch you do this and not…”

“Do not come,” Severus instructed him, plunging his fingers back and forth in his arse. “I will not fuck you if you do.”  
“What?” Ron choked.

“You heard me,” Severus’ mouth stayed open when he caressed the nerve bundle within him once more, that time with the pressure of two fingers. “I usually do this with three fingers,” he said in a rasping voice. “I’ve done it thinking about you. I imagined they were yours.”

 

“Please,” there was more of a shout in the word and Ron groaned, watching the purple tip of Severus’ cock slide into view as his hand descended downwards for another pump. “Release me, let me suck you off… I need to…”

“What? Taste me?”

“Yes…” Ron panted, wishing there was something, anything he could rub his dick on.

 

Severus let go of his erection and reached for his wand, the thought of what he was about to unleash on the redhead nearly driving him over the edge. “This will prepare you for me,” he flicked the wand and uttered the spell, and waited for the scream.

 

It was more of a gurgled choke, but Ron’s breath seemed sucked out of his lungs when he felt the intrusion behind him, just like Severus was fingering him. “Oh fuck… fuck…”

“Keep quiet,” Severus flicked his wand again and knew his next spell would make it almost entirely impossible for Ron to do so –but it would be delicious to watch him fail.

 

Ron bucked forward when he felt the wetness on his cock. His eyes immediately searched out the source but there was nothing there, and he was suddenly panting, as that wetness licked against him unrelentingly, constantly laving over the tip. He saw fluid dribble from his slit and it stung as it went. He opened his mouth to cry out, as the licking and the stretching seemed to fall into a rhythm together, working him to a state of ecstasy within seconds. Eyes open but dazed, he wasn’t really sure where he was looking, but then he noticed Severus looking back at him, his hand wrapped around his dick again, stroking, cock hard and glistening, watching what he was putting Ron through.

 

“Still think you can handle it?” There was a definite jeer in Severus’ voice and Ron realised his torment was completely down to his own actions. Had he not protested at the cock ring then he would just have been left tied to the post to watch Severus touch himself. “You need to learn to obey me.”

 

Severus bit into his lip and watched as Ron writhed against his binding, mouth open in a scream he had yet to release. Whichever spell it was, however, one seemed to undo Ron’s control as he bucked forward and cursed out loud to the bed.

 

“Oh dear,” Severus caught his gaze. “For every time you scream out loud, you add to your total of the spanks you will receive when you have come.”

 

Unfortunately for Ron, at that moment the spell making dinner out of his cock seemed to move into overdrive, because he found himself unable to stop screaming. In his slit, washing round the head, lapping at the underside –the invisible tongue seemed to be absolutely everywhere and he could not reign in his vocal chords.

 

“No… no… god no… Severus make it stop,” he babbled, hips thrusting involuntarily. “Sev please oh god and fuck it’s… no,” he whimpered slightly with a mix of shame and desire. He cried out again as the spell in his back passage pressed over his prostate.

 

Severus watched as slowly his cocky, brave redhead was reduced to a whimpering, mewling wreck against the bedpost, and delighted in it.

 

“Oh god…I can’t stop it, need to come…” the shouts and grunts grew louder, Severus gave up counting.

 

He let go of his own erection and stilled his hand before removing his fingers. This was not his undoing, it was Ron’s. He sat up, legs still spread, and saw the way Ron’s skin was heated in a full body blush, his trim stomach heaving with the desperate control he was trying to retain.

 

Severus knew he could cut the spells then and there and save Ron the embarrassment. _But then where would be the fun in that?_

 

Ron had finally had enough and he knew his climax was coming; it was urged by the fact that Severus was watching him so closely. The spell on his cock refused to let up and was licking in fast strokes across his foreskin and slit, like a persistent animal at something it really, truly wanted.

 

That thought, as disturbing as it was, pushed Ron too far, and he screamed, arms tensing as he thrust forward and spurted his orgasm onto the bed cover between him and Severus. It was like no orgasm he’d ever had before. The spell licked him through it and his cock seemed unwilling to deflate.

 

“Severus please, stop,” he panted, head tilted back as his cock spasmed and made him shudder, stinging with pleasure.

 

Severus had to recover himself from the depraved show before his eyes to reach for his wand, utter ‘finite incantatem’ and listen to Ron’s relieved groans. His hard gasps were the only sound in the bedroom and there, watching Ron be filthy, sweaty and completely broken, Severus knew he would never give up the chance to take that body again.

 

He vanished the restraints and Ron slumped forward, his face landing in the midst of the mess he’d created on the coverlet, his backside up to the room. Severus moved alongside him and groped it for a moment, pinching the sweaty skin sporadically before massaging.

 

“You disobeyed my orders,” Severus told him quietly. “You were vocal, and then you ruined my favourite bedspread.”

“No, I couldn’t help it-” Ron groaned. “It was too much, Severus, please... don’t take this away. Next time I’ll… be better.”

 

_Oh God no, never stop doing what you just did, Ron, please._

 

“I will still fuck you,” Severus forced hardness into his tone. “As I did not get the chance to finish pleasuring myself. But first you have to be punished for your rulebreaking.”

 

Ron gulped and stayed quiet. His orgasm had been like nothing he had experienced before, and he suddenly understood the reasons why Severus had slowly taught him. _Probably would have just fucking passed out if he’d done this that first night._

 

“FUCK!” Ron screamed, as a sharp crack on his arse dragged him out of his thoughts, and he inwardly groaned, remembering the threat of spanking which had been issued during his incontrollable stint against the bedpost. Another smack had him gasping. _I suppose I shouldn’t be getting hard from this…_

 

And yet he was. No matter how bone-melting his orgasm had been, Ron felt his cock stirring in his groin. There was a third smack, that time further down, at the tops of the back of his thighs, and it clipped his balls ever-so-slightly. He groaned but then the hand was gone.

 

“Don’t make me do that again,” Severus panted at him, his hand stinging. “I enjoy it thoroughly too much and I can get carried away.”

Ron flicked his eyes to the dark groin and could have gaped at how much harder the man seemed.

 

“On your back,” Severus pointed. “Arse over that pillow. _Now._ ”

 

Ron scrambled to comply and with shaking limbs dropped down into position, knees throbbing with the way blood rushed back into them.

  
“It seems that I was not the only one to enjoy spanking,” Severus raised an eyebrow as he dipped his fingers into the jar again.

“What are you doing?” Ron asked, watching him. “I thought that spell…”

“Will have done enough, but this is your first time, and I want to be sure. There is a difference between enjoying pain from a few slaps to your backside to the feeling of being ripped apart,” Severus said, in a tone much softer than the previous few times he had spoken.

 

Ron nodded and let his legs fall apart. His cock was enticed back to full hardness as Severus played around his puckered, greased hole, and slid in. The second joined it instantly and Ron felt then the feeling of being full. The fingers scissored within him but he stayed oddly quiet, and he wondered if he had spent his vocal contributions.

 

Severus noticed and paused, looking down into his face. “Are you alright?”  
Ron nodded sincerely. “Just…”

“I know,” Severus gave him a knowing smirk. “We’re not finished yet though; I’d hate to think you’ve used up all those beautiful screams you can make.”

“I’m sure I’ll manage,” Ron said hoarsely, and closed his eyes at the feeling of the third finger pushing into him. “Jesus…”

“Off again already, we needn’t have worried,” Severus commented, and thrust the fingers in and out a few times before withdrawing them. “That’s enough.”

 

“Sit up and rub this over me,” Ron felt the cool jar pressed into his hand.

 

Stroking the silky substance over Severus’ groin felt a lot more erotic than he thought it would have, and he watched as his fingers slid and slipped with every scoop of the lube.

“That’s enough,” Severus whispered, and Ron dropped the jar.

 

Their eyes met and Ron suddenly found himself more nervous than he could remember being in a long time. Too scared to lie back down without assurance, he reached forward and lightly looped his arms around Severus’ neck and kissed him.

 

“Just relax,” Severus soothed him, and lowered them both down onto the bed. “And trust me.”

“I trust you,” Ron repeated back instantly, because it was the truth. Severus kissed him once more.

 

Heart racing, Ron let his legs fall wide again, unsure as to how his lover would take him, but Severus just settled in between his legs and reached down between them, lining himself up.

“Close your eyes,” he instructed, and Ron obeyed, wondering why but never receiving an explanation.

 

He felt the heat of Severus pushing against him, and then gasped when he broke through the ring of muscle and slid in at a slow pace. Ron’s gasps were too fast but then he didn’t see how he could react any other way to being filled up. The pain wasn’t the problem, because it wasn’t as bad as he had been expecting, though he wasn’t quite sure what that had been.

 

Severus dropped a kiss onto his cheek and stayed close, one hand stroking Ron’s hair, ready to murmur any words of needed encouragement. But his Fire Imp stayed remarkably quiet, and the only way Severus knew he was reacting were the gasps, and it was with shock that Severus found himself fully sheathed within the redhead.

“Ron, are you alright…”  
“I’m fine,” Ron finally opened his eyes, bright and sparkling. “It’s just… I feel like if you move, you’re going to split me open, and I’m going to do something embarrassing.”

“It’s meant to feel like that,” Severus kissed him and dismissed the doubts. “Ready for me to move yet?”

“Never know until you try,” Ron’s breath caught with fear.

“I knew you were being too brave,” Severus said in his ear, shifting his hips enough for Ron to feel the difference within him, “And I hope you understand now why I made you wait.”

Ron nodded with a definite gulp, and gripped Severus’ hips with his hands.

 

“Move,” he breathed.

“As you wish,” Severus licked at his ear briefly before levering himself up onto his hands and gently working his hips into a back and forth motion, never completely leaving Ron’s passage.

“Urghgod,” Ron choked, as the pain transmuted into something he was sure he wanted more of. “Severus that’s so… good,” he let his head tilt back.

“I’m glad, ready for a notch up in speed? You’re testing my ability to hold off here,” Severus swallowed.

 

“Go for it,” Ron’s mouth was open in a strange smirk, and it widened as Severus snapped his hips more quickly. Inside a fire seemed to stoke in his belly, and crept up his chest, through his lungs and out of his mouth, and then caution seemed to sweep him up into the wind. Somehow his legs flew up and locked around Severus’ waist, and his hands gripped the man’s back with bruising strength.

 

Severus saw the change in his partner and groaned his approval, knowing that the worst was over, and Ron pressed him down for a wet kiss. He sucked on Severus’ lower lip as they broke apart and the raven haired man groaned again.

“Gods yes, you’re so fucking tight…” Severus breathed, letting his eyes flutter shut. “So… so tight…ah…”

 

Ron met him on his next thrust and it had both of them growling to the room, and after that it seemed to unlock them both. There wasn’t really any way to tell who was making what sound, which grunt slipped from which throat as they slammed into one another, Severus picking up speed, pounding into Ron’s body with every thrust of his hips.

 

Lost in the sensation, Ron smoothed one hand up into Severus’ hair and pushed downwards, bringing their faces together once more for a kiss as the pounding grew erratic and Ron knew he was finally going to feel his lover climax inside of him.

“Harder,” he encouraged, before letting his tongue slip out to duel with Severus’ slightly. “Come on, Sev… let go… let go and fill me up with your come. You know that’s what you want, that’s what you’ve been waiting for…”

Severus growled at the taunting words, they were drawing him closer with every syllable. Breathing heavily he lowered his face so that he was level with Ron’s ear and whispered, “Yes, and you’re going to lie there and take it all… because you’re mine.”

“Y-yours,” Ron stammered, the hot breath driving him mad as Severus plunged deep within him.

“Whose are you?” Severus repeated, and bit down on his earlobe.

“Yours!” Ron yelped, and arched as another orgasm caught him by surprise, and he cried it out in hoarse babble.

 

It was too much for Severus. He levered up again and gave two final hard shoves, and howled his climax into the air, eyes closed, hair sweaty and stuck to his neck. Thick rushes of come left him and he growled aloud at the thought of Ron’s tight passage awash with his semen.

 

Ron’s legs remained tightly wrapped around Severus’ waist and he did not let go. He pulled the raven-haired man back down and kissed him hotly, still gasping his approval with little cries escaping his throat every now and then.

 

Severus found himself unusually trembling in the aftermath, and was glad Ron had pulled him down to hold him, because he wasn’t sure he could have held himself up.

“Are you okay?” Ron’s whisper filtered through the sex haze and Severus had to chuckle that the redhead would think to ask, when it was he who had just gone through his first anal penetration.

“I am… just… fine…” Severus managed to bring his breathing into line and smiled at Ron. “And yourself?”

“Too fucked to answer,” Ron let his head fall flat on the bed. “And so…sleepy…”

“Then sleep,” Severus kissed his chest before resting his cheek on it.

 

He felt one of Ron’s hands massage into his hair and groaned at the touch.

“Kiss me,” Ron asked.

“If you insist,” Severus tried to sound normal but his voice had degenerated into a croak, and they joined at the lips.

“I don’t know what to say now,” Ron admitted, as they broke apart.

“You don’t have to say anything, I understand,” and Severus kissed him again, a little deeper, and Ron moaned appreciatively into his mouth.

 

***

 

Ron awoke sprawled on his front, one of his arms draped over Severus’ back. Surprisingly, Severus was next to him, conked out with his head flat on the mattress, hair in disarray from the sex and sleep. He was even snoring a little. Ron blinked sleepily and pushed himself up, letting out a groan at the ache deep within him.

 

_Totally worth it though._

“Where are you going?” Severus asked him groggily.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” Ron whispered.

“I’m a very light sleeper, always have been,” Severus shook his head in explanation. “Are you alright, do you hurt?”

“A bit. But then I’ve not tried walking yet, so it might be a lot…” Ron grinned. “Can I use your bathroom please?”  


“It’s that door there,” Severus waved a lazy hand. “Make yourself at home.”

Ron rolled sideways off the bed and stood up tentatively, surprised that his whole body seemed to want to join in the aching party. He yawned with his stretch. “Back in a minute,” he called over his shoulder.

 

Severus watched him leave, the inked Fire Imp on his back looking as stunning as ever. When Ron disappeared from view, Severus rolled onto his back, aided by the smooth surface of the sheets. Ron needn’t know he’d changed them purposefully. Severus heard the toilet flush, then the sink tap running, and then Ron was back, moving slowly as he climbed back into the bed.

 

“So…” Ron turned to him, propping his head up on his elbow as he lay stretched out on his side. “That was great. When can we do that again?”

Severus looked at him with wondering eyes and then snorted. “You’ll need a while to recover.”

“I don’t doubt that,” Ron exhaled, and rolled his neck around in a circle. “So Severus… am I… allowed to … you know…”

“No, I don’t know,” Severus frowned.

 

Ron dropped his hand and shifted closer to cuddle into Severus’ body, resting his head on his shoulder. “Is this allowed?”

“Not normally… not with anyone else…” Severus admitted. “I’m not a particularly cuddly person.”

 

“Oh,” Ron murmured, and pulled back. “Okay.”

“Let a man finish,” Severus growled. “But if you would like that, then I’m sure I could get used to it.”

Ron moved forward again and was wrapped around Severus quickly. “Good. Because I do like it.”

 

They lay together in peaceful silence for a while, each marvelling at how nice it felt to do so. And then Ron had to ask, because his curiosity got the better of him.

 

“Why did you come back, Sev?”

“Because I was only there to prove a point, and my friend thought it was foolish to drag it out for longer than need be.”

“Did you tell your friend about us?” Ron set his focus on one of Severus’ nipples.

“Yes, we talked about you this morning.”

“Somehow I get the impression that it didn’t go down well?”

“Not exactly,” Severus murmured. “But our talk was very beneficial.”

“In what way?”  
“In that we think we may have figured out the last connection between you and I.”

“Oh?” Ron still focussed on the pink nub; it was safer, in case he saw something in Severus’ face that he did not want to see.

 

“It’s a bit heavy to discuss now, however,” Severus laced a hand into Ron’s hair. “We can talk about it another time.”

“No, now,” Ron decided. “I’m guessing it’s something bad…”

“Not necessarily… it’s just… what you need to understand, Ron, about magic, and our magic especially… it is subjective. It can change, it has many hidden quirks.”

“Yes, nearly getting killed by your own exploding stunning spell will teach a man that, Sev,” Ron thought back to a particularly embarrassing moment during the war.

 

 

Severus paused before continuing, and had to remind himself that Ron had had his own colourful exploits before they were brought together.

 

“That first night after I drank from you… can you remember, at any point, thinking about your feelings? That maybe, you liked the way I made you feel?”

“I remember you made me feel wanted,” Ron answered instantly. “And that I liked it.”

 

Severus sighed at just how bang on Bridgette had been, but then he wasn’t particularly sure why he was surprised –she normally was.

 

“Well… in that case… the Invitation Lore you invoked was still mutating and forming when you felt and thought that, and it has been… infused into the way the Lore works between us. Because you liked the way I made you feel wanted, and you wanted to be wanted… the magic works to stop me from ever denying you… seemingly ever stopping wanting you. Hence the burning arms.”

“So… it’s my fault again then,” Ron gave a small laugh and still did not look up.

 

“Do not blame yourself,” Severus said softly. “There is no point in placing blame. Now we just live with what we have and make the best of it.”

“And are you happy with that?” Ron narrowed his eyes. “Are you happy being lumbered with me like that?”

“Look at me,” Severus commanded, and was not surprised when Ron did not obey. So he reached up and grabbed hold of his chin and tilted his face up for him. Ron then closed his eyes and Severus groaned. “Stop being so difficult. If you’d just let me say what I have to say then you’d know you don’t have to feel this way.”

 

Ron reluctantly cracked his eyelids open and waited for the blow to fall. But all that came was a soft kiss.

 

“I am not lumbered with you, Ron. I certainly do not see it that way. I hope that you do not feel that you have been lumbered with me, either. Because we are woven together now and we cannot change that. And you are a very attractive young man –why would I feel hard done by with someone such as yourself?”

“I don’t feel lumbered with you,” Ron told him. “I mean… this isn’t what I would have chosen for myself. I don’t want… I didn’t want to be tied down to anybody.”

“Neither did I,” Severus assured him. “Why do you think I was still single?”

“So we’re two free spirits bound together… is it me or does that sound like a barney waiting to happen?” Ron’s face creased into a smile.

 

“I have no doubt it will be,” Severus kissed him.

“And we hide this? From everyone?” Ron asked.

“Yes. Until you leave here and even then, if we could keep it a secret, I’d prefer it.”

“Okay,” Ron nodded, eyes serious.

 

“Ron?”

“Mmm?”

“Is your neck free at the moment?”

“Let me check its diary.”

 

Severus laughed. “Did you have a good week here without me?”

“Oh, very funny,” Ron reached out and flicked gently at the nipple he’d been staring at. “I was ready to chew my own arm off for something to do. Did you have a good week?”

“It was nice, to see Bridgette again.”

“You never said your friend was a woman…”  
“Were you expecting a man?” Severus asked, bemused. “There are as many female vampires as male ones, Ron.”

“I just assumed… you don’t seem like one for female company, I suppose.”

“Bridgette helped me after I was first changed, like I explained.”  
“Sev?”

“Mm?”  
“Was she the one that changed you?”

 

“No, I do not think so.”

“What do you mean you don’t think so?” Ron frowned. “Do you not know?”

 

Severus remained quiet.

 

“Severus, seriously, you don’t know who changed you?”

“I know it was not Bridgette. She cared for me in those first weeks… it was very fortunate that it happened when school was not in session. I was able to be well enough for teaching when term started.”  
“What do you mean, well enough? Does the change make you ill?”

 

Severus cursed his lack of thought and Ron’s inquisitive mind. “Look, today is not the time to discuss this. Can we drop it, please?”

“Sorry,” Ron said immediately, sensing the tone and for once, he chose to heed it. “Being nosy...” He kissed what he could reach with soft lips.

 

Severus lay very quietly; glad the conversation had been abandoned, marvelling at how serene it felt to hold Ron in his arms.


	8. To Hell In A Hand Basket

Ron was walking, but he wasn’t feeling anything because he was totally numb. It was three days after Christmas, and the castle was still miraculously empty. And what scared him the most was the fact that he had done absolutely nothing to warrant a summons to the Headmaster’s office –there was nobody around to get in trouble with.

 

_Except…_

 

He swallowed and his heartbeat racked up a notch. His fingers were trembling where they were stuffed in his pockets.

 

_Just deny everything. If that’s even what he wants. And who’s to say it is, we’ve been so careful… nobody would have cause to suspect anything at all._

All too soon that stone gargoyle came into view and Ron wanted to run and hide.

 

_You are nineteen years old. You’ve fought dark wizards until they came out of your ears. And yet faced with your Headmaster you’re shivering like a wet puppy._

“Pear drops,” Ron muttered the password to the statue, and the doorway became visible.

 

_Voldemort probably wouldn’t have cared you were fucking your teacher… providing blood for your teacher…_

 

Ron stepped onto the moving staircase and wondered quite why Dumbledore would mind either, but Severus had been insistent they keep it quiet. There had to be reasons for that.

 

 _Obviously to protect Severus’ identity as a vampire, and maybe not everybody knows which way he swings?_ But standing on the moving staircase, Ron wasn’t sure there wasn’t anything more sinister lurking beneath Severus’ reluctance. And he felt a prize tool for not having asked before this moment had arrived.

 

He stood in front of the wooden door and took a deep breath. His palms were slick with sweat and he knew he must look like the epitome of a guilty conscience.

 

 _Come on, grow a pair._ He growled the words inwardly, knowing it would be what Severus instructed him to do. With that in mind, he knocked on the door and entered when beckoned.

 

The office looked the same as it ever had -full of interesting artefacts and books and the portraits of Headmasters and Mistresses past.

 

“Ah, Mr. Weasley, please, have a seat,” Dumbledore gestured to the chair opposite him at the desk.

 

Ron sank into it, his heart in his throat. “Sir?”

“How are you enjoying your Christmas holiday?” Dumbledore asked him.

“Er, it’s okay… a bit boring, I suppose,” Ron answered him nervously.

“Hogwarts has always had the potential to be a very lonely place when one is by oneself,” the old man nodded. “I must admit I was surprised to see you here in such a way.”

 

Ron gave a discomfited smile and looked down at his knees, informally clad in the tatty old jeans he’d been rolling around the dorm in.

 

“How are things with your schoolwork?” was the next question.

“Going well, hopefully, I think,” Ron kept his answers as short as he could without looking rude. He was very confused as to what was going on. Dumbledore was talking to him informally –was this just a badly timed coincidence?

 

“Funny, you have been in solitude here for a week, and yet when Harry came looking for you yesterday afternoon to try and offer you an olive branch back to your family home, you were nowhere to be found.”

 

_What?! Harry was here looking for me? Oh fuck. Oh fuck._

 

Ron had never been very talented at lying on the spot. Planned dishonesty he could pull off, maybe even with a little finesse, but he would never make it through the conversation off the bat. Dumbledore looked at him, clearly expecting an explanation.

 

“I can’t believe he did that,” Ron said finally, hoping he could deter the old man with a display of emotion. “I wasn’t expecting… anyone to come, really.”  
“Well, Mr. Potter seemed most concerned for your welfare, and he also carried the same sentiments from your family, it would seem. I don’t think your mother actually expected you to take her seriously.”

“Well, she could have told me that,” Ron breathed. “She seemed pretty insistent, as I’m sure you heard.”  
  
“Mothers think they have the right to pry in the business of their children, even in affairs of the heart, Mr. Weasley.”

“I know that, Sir, but I just wish she didn’t have to pry in front of the entire student and staff body.”

 

Dumbledore laughed then and Ron’s mood took a hopeful surge, wondering if his decoy had worked.

 

“But this does not explain where you were so that you were not there to receive Harry. Mr. Weasley, you may be overage now, and an honorary student, but this does not grant you the complete freedom it appears you accessed yesterday. Please tell me where you were. Your family is worried about you and I need to give them an adequate assurance that you have not waltzed off the planet.”

 

_Bugger. No such fucking luck. Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit._

Ron thought over Dumbledore’s words, those about his freedom especially. Would sleeping with a teacher encroach on that freedom he was still not allowed to have? With an ugly flip of his stomach, Ron knew the answer to that. If he opened his mouth now, he would likely get Severus sacked, and possibly himself thrown out of school. And nobody would be happy to see them together.

 

“I, uh, went for a… explore of the grounds. I was out after lunch yesterday and I fancied a walk. I got a bit lost, if I’m honest, Sir.”

“Snow will do that,” Dumbledore looked at him closely.

 

_Is that it? Is my lie accepted?_

“Tell me, have you fully recovered from your recent visit to the hospital wing? I hear you were there for treatment for a little anaemia?”

“Yes,” Ron nodded, wanting to groan that he wasn’t out of the woods yet. “I feel fine now, Sir, I have no idea what caused it to flare up… maybe stress, I don’t know?”

“I hope you’ve been using the break to catch up on your rest,” Dumbledore smiled. “NEWT year is not easy, by any means.”  
“No, it really isn’t,” Ron agreed with him with a nod and raised eyebrows.

 

They fell to silence and Ron awkwardly scuffed his boots together, waiting for the Headmaster to speak again.

 

Then the old man sighed. “Mr. Weasley, is there anything you’d like to tell me at all? Nothing… odd about this year that you think I should know?”

 

_He knows. He fucking knows. Do I lie or is this going to be one of those stupid things where telling the truth is going to save our arses? Fuck._

 

“You are conflicted in your answer,” Dumbledore said sadly. “Then I have no choice.”

“About what, Sir?” a trickle of sweat dropped down over Ron’s tattoo and he shivered.

 

“Severus?” Albus called out, and Ron’s face drew into a baffled frown. Then out of the corner of his eye he saw a dark movement, and Severus moved out of the darkness of the south-west part of Dumbledore’s office.

 

Ron whipped round to properly look at him, his eyes wide with fear now he knew that Dumbledore could not see him. It felt like someone was pumping icy water through his veins, and it set when Ron fully took in the look on Severus’ face. It was a look of grim stature, almost defeat, and the dark eyes Ron had seen so full of emotion recently were hard and glassy. Severus moved and snapped a chair out of thin air, and sank down into it soundlessly next to Ron, arms folded over his chest, one hand massaging roughly over his mouth.

 

“I am not particularly hurt that you lied,” Dumbledore’s voice dragged Ron to the reality he was trying to ignore by focussing on Severus. “I expected you to. You are a very loyal character.”

 

Ron found he could not speak; he was forced into silent submission by the fear coursing through him. He had known he was growing to care for Severus in a way he wasn’t sure he’d ever cared for anybody before, but only the thought of having the situation removed made him seriously consider just _how_ much he had begun to feel.

 

“This is an extremely serious situation. Whatever mistakes you have made –and _both_ of you have,” Dumbledore sent a pointed gaze to flick between them, “This is very serious. And I confess I do not know exactly how to handle it. I think I have seen just about everything this school can throw at me and then it always surprises me. I suppose the trick to that is to stop assuming arrogance…”

 

Neither of them laughed, as maybe Dumbledore had been expecting. Ron wanted to reach out and touch Severus, but he just knew from his posture that it would not go down well.

 

“I do not know the best course of action to take,” Dumbledore went on. “There is very deep magic involved here.”

 

 _So tell us something we don’t bloody know?_ Ron’s brain kicked into action like someone had jump-started it.

 

“W-what.,. How much do you know?” Ron marshalled his tongue into a controlled manner.

“He knows everything,” Severus shot sideways, not looking at Ron at all.

Ron licked his lips nervously. “Then you know my own actions in this, that Severus…”

“Professor Snape,” Severus snapped at him.

“That Professor Snape,” Ron continued in a quietened voice, throat thick, “He did not… force me into anything?”

 

“I know your part in this Mr. Weasley. I do not believe it will be constructive to go back over the finer points now.”

 

Ron was grateful for that –somehow talking about his suddenly colourful sex life with a wizard over the age of a hundred was not appealing.

 

“So… are you going to kick me out? Sack Sev- Professor Snape?” Ron corrected himself mid-flow and coloured as Dumbledore fixed him with a hard gaze.

“I do not know what to do, Mr. Weasley, as I have already said.”

 

Palpable silence filled the room again and Ron couldn’t help the way his hands began to violently tremble, even though nobody had threatened him, or Severus, and his breaths sped up. He raised the shaking hand and placed it over his mouth, where it continued to shake his face.

 

 _Come on, pull yourself together, you’re showing yourself up here…_ Ron berated himself mentally but his control was slipping away. _He’s not threatening you with anything, stop!_

 

But Ron knew that Severus would not look so grave if that threat was absent, even if it had been left unsaid. Looking for a source of comfort, Ron turned his head to Severus, hoping to get a little comfort. _Aren’t we in this together? He’s said it himself before…_

He was sorely disappointed; Severus was refusing to look at him, choosing to keep his eyes trained on the wood of the Headmaster’s desk. Ron stared at him, knowing Severus would sense him looking at him, as he had done that first night.

 

“Stop it,” the command came in a low voice and Ron felt like he needed to choke at the hostility of it.

 

“How did you know?” Ron turned to Dumbledore, hoping the shock of Severus’ rejection was not as apparent on his face as it was in his heart at that moment.

“I have a rather wonderful view of the grounds from my office,” Dumbledore said softly. “Never before have I seen Severus bother to pay a student in the snow a visit.”

 

Ron coloured, remembering the way he had refrained from throwing his arms around Severus on Christmas Day, lest they be seen. _Might as well not have fought it, fat lot of bloody good being reserved did us._

 

“And then, when Harry visited me, asking where you were, if you’d requested permission to leave the castle… and of course you had not…”

“Does Harry know about this?” Ron gasped.

“No,” Dumbledore assured him. “I said I would endeavour to find you, and he left through the Floo here.”

“So… how did you…”

 

“I am the Headmaster of this school, and I have resources at my hands that no other teacher does. That is all I am willing to say on the matter,” Dumbledore’s voice took on a hard edge again and Ron shrivelled back into his chair.

 

“So, really… you haven’t decided what to do? Are you going to… oh Merlin…” Ron cracked inside then, and he had to lean forward and hide his face in his hands. “Are you going to contact my parents?”

 

“You are of age,” was all the answer Dumbledore gave.

“Then what’s the problem?” Ron asked through his fingers.

“You are still my charge,” Dumbledore reminded him.

 

“But an of age charge,” Ron frowned. “If this is a case of me being a student… if that is the only obstacle here then I-”

“You will do nothing of the sort,” there was a quiet thunder in Dumbledore’s voice which Ron instantly hated, it made him feel like a storm was brewing and it would crack open right above his head.

 

Silence fell again and Ron looked back to Severus.

“Why were you here?” He asked in a wobbly voice, wondering if Severus would finally look at him.

“The Headmaster asked to see me this morning. Like you I responded,” Severus replied dully, keeping his eyes forward.

“And then you told him everything?” Ron’s voice was suddenly heated. “For Merlin’s sake, Severus! And you couldn’t have lied?”

 

“Think before you speak,” Severus finally turned and set his glare on Ron. “And whom you speak in front of.”

“Really, you’ve got the balls to say that to me?” Ron gaped. “You? You who has just cocked all this up? We were doing fine, Severus, nobody had to know.”

 

“As disinclined as I am to come to it, in Severus’ defence, there is a reason he could not deny me once I asked those questions,” Dumbledore spoke again. “At the end of the war I thought it was high time I revised the staff contracts. There had been too many cases of deception in these walls. The staff contracts are laced with truth bonds. I ask a question now and my staff are bound to answer it truthfully.”

 

“Even those of us who have served you loyally for years,” Severus said with venom, dragging his eyes from Ron’s pale face back to the wizened man on the other side of the desk.

 

“I strive for equality,” Dumbledore answered Severus diplomatically. “And just look what it uncovered here… those who were once loyal apparently do not remain so.”

 

“You know the circumstances,” Severus said heatedly. “I could not escape that chamber; I could not escape the Invitation issued.”

“Yet your actions afterwards, Severus, those you could have escaped,” Dumbledore answered him coldly. “You made me a solemn promise, Severus, when I continued to let you work here…”  
  
“You wanted him working here,” Ron interrupted rudely. “You wouldn’t have kicked him out whilst he was your spy. Let’s not insult one another’s intelligence…”

 

Both of the older men stared at him with disbelief, Severus’ was rooted in his amazement at the boy’s gall and daring, Dumbledore’s at the extent of Ron’s knowledge.

 

“I suggest we adjourn this for now,” Dumbledore snapped back to his senses. “This will not be settled in a day. I need time to consider and evaluate the situation. Until further notice you are dismissed to your normal lives around the castle. I will contact you when I have made a decision, and it should before the rest of the school returns.”

 

Ron shot a sneaky glance at Severus, trying to figure out what the old man meant by his dismissal. _He’s not said we’re forbidden to see one another… is he pardoning this?_

“As the castle is relatively empty, I cannot order a separation on the grounds of discretion. But you will tell nobody else about this, and you will not be seen in public.”

 

“D’you think we’re daft?” Ron couldn’t help the way that burst out of his lips.

 

_Stupid big mouth. Ah, fuck._

 

“Mr. Weasley, I had hoped you were not, but considering what you entered into, my confidence in your intelligence has taken rather a significant knock. Do not deflate it further.”

  
Rebuked and stung, Ron fought back his scowl.

 

“I do not know what you two expect to come of this,” Dumbledore said, it was more of a question. “One of you is mortal, the other immortal.”

“Can we not have any hint of what you’re considering?” Ron turned on the charm to his voice, the same charm he had been using for three days to get Severus to sleep with him again. It worked on Severus. Ron was not so sure about Dumbledore.

 

“I’d kick you out if it were me,” one of the Headmasters growled from his portrait on the wall, and he was soon backed up by a round of jeering agreement.

“Eject you with your vampire and let you deal with the consequences,” one old woman said snottily.

 

“That is quite enough from you all,” Dumbledore said to the portraits.

“Albus, see reason!” one of them called.

  
“You are dismissed, await my call.”

 

Ron saw Severus move immediately and the door banged behind him as he exited the office. Somehow he managed to get to his own feet even though his knees were knocking as much as his hands were trembling.

 

“You will contact both of us, won’t you?” He asked suspiciously, as he reached the door.

“You will both be aware of my decision,” Dumbledore told him. “Look after yourself, Mr. Weasley. I do not want to be explaining a death to upset parents.”

“You should have more faith in him,” Ron muttered, not knowing where his desire to stand up for Severus was coming from.

 

_Because he certainly didn’t bother to stand up for me in there…_

 

Ron walked down the moving stairwell, making his head swim with the same sort of disorientation he got from walking down moving Muggle escalators. He stopped when he hit the solid ground of the corridor and shook his head slightly, trying to rid himself of the sensation.

 

He was torn as to where he should go, and what he should do.

 

 _I’ll be damned if I’m going to go searching for that fucking bastard._ Ron’s temper was speaking for him, and although he was hurt at the way Severus had not offered one shred of comfort in the Headmaster’s office, he knew once he had calmed down and remembered that was just the way Severus was, he would get over it. But at that moment he was still trembling and he was very close to something that might have been rage.

 

He turned to his left and strode down the corridor, thinking of somewhere quiet that he could go to hide from reality for a while.

 

***

Severus knew he was wearing a path in his bedroom carpet, but he was so fuming mad he didn’t care.

 

However, he wasn’t sure who he was angrier at –Dumbledore, or Ron. His reasons for wanting to shove his wand down the old man’s throat were absolute, but he was discomfited in the way he felt such irritation and resentment towards Ron, who had been broadsided with confrontation, just as he had.

 

_Stupid little bastard. Honest to God, what was he thinking disputing with the man like that? He truly has no idea how he is expected to behave…_

 

Severus checked himself, thinking back on his friend’s words, about how the need would come for him to control Ron in nearly every sense. If Ron had been like him, been another immortal, it wouldn’t have been such a problem. Two dominant immortals fighting for control would just be the cause of an explosive argument. But between an immortal and a mortal… the consequences would be unconditional and fatal if they were not.

 

_No. I am not an out of control creature and I can, and will, control this need._

Severus forced himself to stop dead still and took three deep breaths, his hands clenched in fists by his side. When the torrent of anger running riot around inside of him seemed to have calmed, he chanced to open his eyes.

 

_I can’t believe he hasn’t come down here… I expected him to. I hope he’s not doing anything ridiculous._

 

Another pang cut through Severus’ chest then, one of guilt and worry. His volatile Imp was somewhere within the castle walls, undoubtedly upset. And Severus had no way of locating him.

 

_Thank God it’s just Albus that knows about this. I don’t think I could take Minerva’s scorn at the moment… anybody’s scorn, really._

 

Severus walked over and sat down on his bed, smoothing his hand over the cover, fully cleaned after Ron’s stint a few nights before. He had always been surprised that Albus had requested that none of the other teachers know about his change. As it had happened out of term-time, the secret was well kept.

 

_Maybe it was because he wanted to cover up any little… mishaps I might have had when he needed me working here… but now… I suppose I’m rather expendable._

He shifted to lay down with his head on the pillows, letting his feet hang off the side of the bed as in his temper he’d not stopped to take his boots off. Groaning, he reached up and pinched at the bridge of his nose, a sure sign that he was becoming far too stressed than was good for him.

 

Severus wasn’t exactly sure if Ron had noticed the way that his emotions were often amplified. Small things could stress him out, the tiniest things made his temper snap. It worked the other way, too, things which were probably trivial gestures to those that made them meant much more to him.

 

_That has nothing to do with being a bloody vampire though. I’ve always been like that… except for the Vampire Depression. That, I’ll grant, was not me._

 

Severus hadn’t explained about that to Ron, either, and he was suddenly struck with the magnitude of information that he had neglected to equip the young man with before he was dragged into the lion’s den. He had stood and near-on blindly defended Severus against Dumbledore without knowing the half of it. Severus gave a sigh which turned into a shudder. They were going to have to talk about it all one day, though Severus wasn’t sure he could stomach it.

 

_Why couldn’t he be like bloody Granger? If this were her I’d just give her a book and she’d have it memorised in a day._

 

He startled himself by laughing at the very thought.

 

_But then Granger doesn’t have a manly back, fuckable arse and hips that I just wish my temperament would let me wrap my legs around…_

 

The drive to claim and to taste drove through Severus in a flash and his forearms tingled when he remembered his distance from the redhead.

 

***

Ron had calmed down considerably by the time he was walking to dinner, though his left hand had suffered the brunt of several hard punches into the battlements of the Astronomy Tower. He was half frozen from his afternoon outside, but once he’d conjured the portable fire and put out the slight mishap which occurred when his sleeve caught fire, things had improved.

 

His hand actually ached rather a lot, and as he entered the hall he tugged down the sleeve of his jumper so he could keep it hidden. There was only one table in use seeing as there were so few people remaining at Hogwarts that year. Ron couldn’t decide if it was because parents were just so glad their families were safe for the meantime that they wanted them together at every possible moment, or whether it was just a domino chain through the pupils, once one decided to go, the others followed because they didn’t want to be lonely.

 

_As lonely as I fucking am!_

 

Ron slid onto the end of the bench and immediately set about serving himself some Shepherd’s Pie, and dumped a healthy serving of peas and carrots on the side. Shivering for better part of the afternoon had left him starving hungry and he ate with relief, the hot food scorching his mouth a little.

 

“Is it always this quiet here at Christmas?” One of the Slytherin third years asked him from along the table. “I’ve never stayed before…”

“Not usually as empty as this,” Ron shot him a smile and hoped he didn’t have food in his teeth. “It’s alright if you like the peace and quiet I guess.”

“I had to stay… my mum and dad needed to go away to see my Nan, she’s ill and she lives in Australia.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Ron said awkwardly, finding himself quite out of sorts being confronted with a conversation with someone younger than him.

“Why are you here?” The boy asked, nervously.

“Because…” Ron faltered, and suddenly found he had no answer, and he had lost his appetite. “I guess because things get complicated when you get older. Enjoy being thirteen.”

 

He got up leaving his food half-eaten, gave a wave of goodbye with his good hand and left the hall without another word, feeling nauseous as the thoughts that had been plaguing him all afternoon caught up with him again.

 

_What on earth would I tell them? “Hey. First off, I’m bisexual and currently I have a… boyfriend. And to top it all off, he’s my Professor. And, if you really thought that was spectacular, the cherry on top of all of that? He’s immortal, loves to feed on my blood and yep, you’ve guessed it, you clever people… he’s a vampire!”_

Forgetting how much his hand hurt, Ron clenched it in fear and cried out when pain spiked through his palm and up into his forearm.

 

“Weasley, what’s the matter?” McGonagall’s voice cracked out across the entrance hall and Ron froze, cursing his stupidity.

“Nothing, Professor,” he answered with what he hoped was a convincing smile.

“What’s wrong with your hand?” She asked shrewdly, and made a grab for it, bringing the bruised hand up so she could examine it. Then she turned her beady gaze on him. “Explain. There’s nobody here for you to have managed this in a brawl, so...”

“I tripped,” Ron groaned. “I punched the wall as I fell down.”

 

She raised an eyebrow. “You tripped?”  
“I was running,” Ron muttered. “Needed the toilet and lost my footing and… well… wallop.”

“You are a danger to yourself, Weasley, go to the Hospital Wing, it looks like you might have cracked something in there.”

“No, really, I’m fine-” Ron protested, and drew his hand back, his eyes betraying him as they winced at the pain.

 

“Minerva, Mr. Weasley,” Ron’s spine tingled as he heard Severus’ voice behind them.

“Ah, Severus. Good Evening. I’m just shepherding Weasley here off to the infirmary, he has a delightful story about tripping into a wall…”

“That’s what happened,” Ron shrugged. “I’ll go now.”

 

He didn’t want to, but it was the perfect excuse to get him out of Severus’ company, which, so moody, Ron didn’t feel he was ready for just at that moment.

“I was heading up to the library,” Severus said. “I’ll escort him as far as there; it seems he is unable to keep himself free of trouble recently.”

 

“Recently?” McGonagall smiled at Ron, who had already wandered over to the staircase. “From the second he set foot in the door… Make sure you get that seen to, Weasley!” She called, and walked into the Hall.

 

Severus saw his chance and flew up the stairs after Ron before the redhead could disappear around the corner and hide.

“Slow down, Weasley,” he called in a stern tone, because he knew they would be audible in the Hall until they got further away. “You do not want to injure that any further.”  


_What the fuck has he done to himself?_ Severus was roiling with worry inside.

 

“Leave me alone,” Ron called over his shoulder, and sped up. His reaction was undoubtedly childish and he knew it would anger Severus, but he couldn’t help but comply with his need to be alone.

 

Severus rolled his eyes and hurried fast enough to catch Ron’s arm and drag him to a stop.

“What have you done to yourself, hmm?” Severus whispered when he was close enough for Ron to hear.

“Nothing,” Ron seethed. “It’s just… I’m going to the infirmary. I’d appreciate it if you’d let go of my arm.”

 

Severus swallowed and immediately turned, tugging Ron to a concealed tunnel at the end of the corridor they had just entered. The entrance was hidden by a large still life of a bowl of fruit and Severus was glad there was not a talking occupant of the frame to deal with as he used all his strength to send Ron careening into the narrow, dimly lit tunnel. He pulled the portrait shut behind them and glared at his redhead.

 

“What did you do?” he asked again, in a low voice.

Ron leant against the wall and sighed, knowing his game was up. “I got a bit angry.”  
“Well so did I, do I have a bruised hand?” Severus reached for Ron’s hand and examined it under the candle bracket he stood next to. “No breaks. You should keep a better hold on your temper.”

 

And then, because Severus felt like the animosity was going to eat them alive, he raised the hurt skin to his lips and ghosted a kiss there.

 

“What are you doing?” Ron yanked his hand back, looking shiftily along the tunnel.

“Nobody is going to find us here,” Severus frowned.

“No, I mean, _what_ are you doing?” Ron breathed, chest getting tight. “Severus… you heard what he said… it’s…”

“I was under the impression that no decision had been reached,” Severus stared at him, trying to work out what Ron might be thinking.

“Well do you really think it’s a good idea to carry on like this?”

“Like what? We’re just standing here!”

 

“Together, alone,” Ron countered, his face pale.

“Yes, like we have always been,” Severus’ patience began to fray around the edges.

 

“I can’t believe you told him,” Ron’s whisper was choked. “After all those ‘be careful’ lectures you gave me…”  
“You heard what he said,” Severus re-iterated. “You heard about the clause in my contract.”  
“You forgot to mention that little gem, didn’t you?” Ron threw him a filthy look. “Just like I hardly know anything about you, or the finer points of what you are, because you won’t tell me.”

 

Severus knew he had been caught out and fell silent.

 

“You let me go in there with nothing, Severus, no reasoned argument at all. And then what’s fucking worse is that when I nearly lost it, and you didn’t lift a finger to help me! What was that all about? Sitting there you did nothing. I don’t want to get all overdramatic here but that hurt.”

 

“It is not in my nature to offer comfort in such a situation,” Severus shrugged. “You are well aware of my personality by now, I am sure?”

“That’s your answer for everything. Being an ill-tempered prick does not excuse you when you’re a bastard, Severus,” Ron’s voice rose in his temper. “There’s a little thing called compassion. I had hoped somewhere within your fucking icy shell there might be some.”

Severus let Ron finish, staring at him whilst he ranted. The insults flew over his head and Severus paid them no heed, on some levels he knew that Ron was absolutely right. He was well known for hiding behind his acerbic nature to get away with being rude.

 

Ron talked himself out and fell silent, chest still tight, waiting for Severus to respond with his own tongue lashing.

 

“Just because you nearly worked yourself up into a panic attack, it is not my job to comfort you at every god given hour of the day,” Severus informed him. “We will not get very far at all if that is what you expect.”  
“I don’t expect that!” Ron burst out. “But for fuck’s sake. You’re sitting in front of a man who knows you’ve been fucking your student for the past three weeks and yet you do nothing to offer comfort to said student. Do you have any idea how you made yourself look? And how you made me look? Some lovesick idiot hanging around someone who it seems is just using him for blood and sex, nothing more?”  
“I don’t give a damn how it made me look,” Severus hissed. “Even less you.”

 

Ron’s eyes widened at that before narrowing. “Fine. You know what, Severus? His decision can’t come soon enough.”

 

Ron made to step out of the passage but Severus blocked his way, tall and imposing with his arms folded over his chest.

“Move,” Ron glared at him.

“Why, so you can run off and hide in your tower and cry yourself to sleep?” Severus scathed.

“What the hell would you care if I did anyway?” Ron scoffed. “Funny that this should all happen after you’ve finally fucked me. I’m not sure you didn’t go and tell him it all voluntarily to get rid of me.”

  
“Oh, don’t be ridiculous,” Severus snapped. “We both know that if I’d had enough of you there would be easier ways to dispose of you than going to the Headmaster and confessing my sins.”

“Are you threatening me?”

 

Severus stared at him for what felt like a lifetime, before sighing. “No, I’m not, Ron.”

“Sure sounded that way. Do you realise what I’m risking for you? I came back here for NEWTs, so I could get a decent job, and have money, Severus. And yet I’m possibly throwing them all away for you. I’ve estranged myself from my family-”

“That was not my fault,” Severus shouted. “Don’t you DARE put that on me, you have nobody but yourself to blame for the way you are currently out of contact with them.”

 

Ron could only breathe in response. Then he turned and looked down the tunnel.

  
“Don’t bother, the end is blocked in, this leads nowhere.”

 

Ron spun round faster than he had intended, lost his balance and crashed sideways into Severus, who fell against the wall.

 

Faster than Ron could comprehend what was happening, he was pushed back across the tiny passage and his head made a loud cracking sound as it hit the wall before the rest of his body. And then Severus was on him, face undeniably angry.

 

It could only have been seconds, but Ron felt as though he experienced it in slow motion.

 

“Severus, I fell, I wasn’t attacking you,” he gasped, as Severus’ tightness to his body encroached on his breathing room.

 

Chastened, Severus took a step back and assessed Ron’s face. “I…”

“I know,” Ron said glumly, and looked off to the side. “Vampire stuff, right?”

“We sense attack and we act,” Severus said softly, feeling remorseful. He wanted to step close again and caress Ron’s face, but he did not know if it would be permitted. “I’m sorry.”

“I need to know this stuff, Severus, if we’re going to have any kind of chance.”  
“I know you do. That was actually why I was… well. I said I was going to the library, but I was lying to Minerva to have the chance to get you alone.”

 

Severus reached into his pocket and took out the book he’d shrunk to give to Ron. He knew that the redhead was not one for reading, but at least he was offering. “I know I should tell you these things… but if you were me, Ron, would you find it easy to tell the person you’re… well. Could you talk easily about such matters?”

  
“I suppose I couldn’t,” Ron gave a little gesture of agreement.

“This is… well, a book written about being a vampire, by those that know. It was given to me when I was changed, Bridgette seemed to think it was one of the most accurate and I suppose it is… but then we are all different. No human can be defined by a text book, and nor can a vampire.”

 

He pressed the book into Ron’s good hand and felt relieved when the binding left his fingers. Whatever came of Ron having that book, it was done now. “Just enlarge it when you are ready to read it.”

“I figured, seeing as I’m not pint-sized,” Ron’s mouth twitched, and Severus gave him a small smirk in return.

 

“We will work something out,” Severus said softly, stepping closer to Ron. “This isn’t over. Just because Albus has spoken, he hasn’t forbidden anything.”

 

“Yet,” Ron said ruefully, wishing the tightness in his chest would leave. He had a sneaking suspicion he knew what it was.

“Oh, don’t mope,” Severus scolded. “Scurry off and cry somewhere and I’m sure you’ll feel better then.”

“I am not going to cry,” Ron muttered, though he know definitely knew what the tightness in his chest was then, and that which was creeping into his throat. “I’ll have a read of this tonight. Thank you.”

“Go and get your hand healed. Please.” Severus affixed that to the end in an attempt to cover his harsh words from before.

 

“You think a please makes up for everything,” Ron muttered astutely.

“Does it not?”  
“Not with me,” Ron rolled his eyes. “Not with many people.”

 

“Does this fix it?” Severus stepped forward and kissed Ron firmly on the lips, tongue sweeping against the silken flesh in an owning gesture.

“Marginally,” Ron flicked him a glance.

 

Frustrated, but trying hard, Severus tugged Ron’s good hand to his mouth and kissed the narrow wrist. “What about this… a show of good faith?”

“For who?” Ron snorted. “You get blood. I get a hard-on which probably won’t go away.”

 

Severus ignored him and sank his teeth into the soft flesh. Ron’s head was beginning to thump from the way he had hit the wall and it was exacerbated by the erotic flow of blood and the stirring in his groin. He watched Severus drink with his head still against the wall and lazily groaned. Severus groaned right back at him and Ron wanted to curse as his prick swelled encased in his trousers, but he couldn’t find the energy.

 

Detaching spotlessly, Severus checked that the puncture marks were non-existent, then reached for the replenisher. He tipped some into Ron’s mouth without the redhead moving a muscle.

 

“Thank you,” Severus whispered, and brushed a kiss over Ron’s cheek.

“Mmkay,” Ron sighed and did not move.

“Ron, you’re… we’re going to get through this.”

“I hope you’re right,” Ron shrugged. “I can’t work up the energy to believe that, to be honest, but there we go.”

“Well I’m not exactly skipping with pre-empted joy here.”

“I’m glad. I don’t think Hogwarts is ready for the sight of you skipping,” Ron grinned half-heartedly at the floor.

 

***

Ron was sat on his bed, surrounded by the remnants of his raided food stash; the book Severus had given him was propped open in his lap. He had a neck ache from sitting cross-legged looking at it for so long, but he found that he could not stop.

 

The book was certainly informative; he had to give it that. He wasn’t quite sure what it was making him feel, but so many things about Severus seemed to fall into place as he read.

 

_Like the way he can only drink posh booze. It’s because his taste buds are in overdrive._

 

And, that apparently was the reason vampires could not eat overly sour foods, like anything with overpowering lemon extract. Ron was currently in the chapter one vampire psychology and behaviour. His eyes raked over the pages, looking for something to jump out at him, when one line did. ‘ _The Vampire Depression’._

Reaching for another parsnip crisp, Ron read with interested eyes.

 

_“The Vampire Depression is a common ailment which affects younglings immediately after their change. The onset is simple –an abrupt upheaval of life: the end of the mortal life, and dealing with the bodily and dietary changes which come with the curse of Vampirism. The depression is, in most cases, severe, as younglings fail to cope with their enhanced emotions sufficiently. Those who do not benefit from the presence of a mentor are prone to suicidal tendencies, though, it is not written than even younglings with such guidance will not feel this turmoil.”_

Ron chewed on his lip. So far in the book he had not found any reference to the change making vampires physically ill, as Severus seemed to imply on Christmas night.

 

_So was it this he was referring to? And he wanted…_

Swallowing hard, Ron snapped the book shut and leapt off the bed with the intention of legging it down to the dungeons and throwing his arms around his vampire, just to quell the sick feeling which bubbled in his stomach. He even had the dorm door open, before he remembered he was only in pyjama bottoms, with bare feet and top half, and it was half past eleven at night.

 

_And he’s not… he wouldn’t appreciate that. You have to learn this, Ron._

 

Glaring at the book like it was to blame Ron sat down primly on the edge of his bed and picked it up again, opening the cover.

 

_‘Much to the consternation of Muggles, garlic and Christian religious symbolism have absolutely no detrimental effects on a vampire’s health at all. In fact, several vampires delight in garlicky food and many collect relics such as crosses to adorn their homes –enjoying the ironic humour.’_

Ron had never seen a cross in Severus’ quarters, which was odd; he seemed like sort that would find such an entendre amusing. He flicked forward and picked out another random passage.

 

_‘Vampires are by nature loyal, loving creatures. Experience has shown that should someone be turned who in their mortal life was considered ‘flighty’, in their immortal life they immediately choose a life partner and stay loyal. Such is the vampire way. Love is not a feeling which can be easily cast aside by our kind.’_

Ron read over that again and took in the words. Severus had said that eventually, he and Ron would love one another. And according to that passage, Severus would love him deeply enough that he was loyal for life.

 

It was a chilling and thrilling thought all at the same time. Ron stopped reading and looked up at the wall of their dormitory. A man who would seemingly love him forever, as long as he lived. And possibly beyond that.

 

_He could truly love me forever if he changed me._

 

Ron was beginning to wonder if something was seriously wrong with them both. Severus had said that his friend in France had asked, and then Dumbledore had hinted, at Ron’s mortality being a big issue. The friend in France thought Severus was mad to keep him mortal. But Ron found he had no desire to live forever. He pitied Severus for his curse, and wouldn’t wish it on anybody. It was enough he had to deal with Severus suffering it.

 

But if he was faced with it, would Ron take on immortality, if Severus would give it to him?

 

_No. Not at the moment. But then there will be years of this. Maybe at some point…_

 

Ron gave his head a little shake. That was not the purpose of him having the book, to think on the possibilities ahead of them. Severus was adamant he was not changing Ron, it seemed, and Ron was content for it to stay that way. And Ron knew Severus was surprised by that.

 

 _He can drink from me forever…_ Ron shrugged. _But then… when you surpass him in age, and looks…_ Ron had a very bizarre image of himself at eighty holding the hand of Severus, stuck forever at thirty-five. He would look like the man’s father. But even that image did not make Ron yearn to be changed, to be equal with the Slytherin.

 

_Maybe there’s something wrong with my head. Maybe I’m supposed to want to be changed. But then he would have done it by now. Nobody need know… and he’d be there to guide me through my ‘depression’. But he hasn’t. And I don’t want him to._

 

Ron stared down at the book in his hands.

 

_Is that selfish? I’d live my life, happy… and die happy… and leave him behind…_

He sighed and looked mawkishly out of the window, which had snow was drifting past.

 

_Severus’d give you a right smack on the arse if he were here._

 

The thought cracked a grin onto Ron’s face. Severus would most definitely be slapping at his backside if he could see the picture Ron painted, alone in his room, mooning over his Potions Master.

 

_He would also wonder why the hell you had a smile on your face… you have no idea what’s going to happen._

Ron looked down at the old book in his hands, clearly well used. It was good for teaching him about Severus’ reactions to things, like the anger issues and the way Ron had obtained a slight concussion from his head hitting the wall when Severus pounced.

 

 _We’ll ignore the fact that I’m hurt he thought I’d attack him…_ Ron was determined on that point.

 

But there were so many things the book could not teach him; those things had to come Severus himself. Ron could learn that he if ever had to cook for Severus not to feed him eggs as most vampires were allergic to them, even if they were not before they were turned, and he could learn that the scent of lilies acted as an aphrodisiac… but as to what really made Severus tick, only the man himself could tell him.

 

Ron got up from the bed with the book and walked to the window, settling down on the cold deep ledge to look out at the falling snow. It was in that white expanse that they had been seen.

 

The cold dread which had been plaguing him all afternoon struck Ron in the stomach and he braced a hand on the window, gripping until his knuckles turned white. There was one question on his mind which kept floating back.

 

_If this all went to hell in a hand basket… would you give him up?_

 

Ron looked at the book in his hand. Ron Weasley did not read for just anybody. And certainly, he would not desert someone who needed his blood. Someone who would fall in love with him and that he could very easily love back.

 

_Then you know your answer. So stop asking the question._

Ron set his jaw and saw his determined reflection in the dorm window.

_No. I will not give him up._


	9. Dirty Distraction

“Yes, fuck me!”

“What do you _think_ we’re doing?” Severus growled, keeping his grip tightly on Ron’s cock as he fucked him from behind.

 

Ron couldn’t answer; he was too lost in the sensation of being thoroughly pounded. He didn’t even know that his body could take as much strength as it was currently being subject to as Severus’ hips snapped forward into him over and over again. A hoarse yell ripped from his lips as Severus yanked on his erection and sent him spiralling into the heat of his orgasm.

 

“Oh gods yesyesyesyesyesyesyes fuck it, Sev, come on yes…” As ever, there was no let up just because Ron had finished.

 

_I could be having a fucking heart attack and this man would plough me until he was finished._

 

There was a jerking growl in Severus’ throat and he tensed, grabbing Ron to him tightly with bruising strength as he choked out his own climax.

 

They swayed for a moment, both up on their knees, and Severus let out an exhausted groan.

“I feel a bit like that too,” Ron gave a breathy laugh. “I feel like I’ve just gone two rounds with a vampire…”

 

Severus snorted at that and let his head fall down on Ron’s shoulder, cock still buried inside his lover. “You’ll have gone three by the time the night’s out.”  


It was Ron’s turn to groan and close his eyes. His body ached and he was tired, but he wasn’t going to object if Severus wanted to have him for a third time that night. Ron glanced at the clock and it told him that it was half past ten. He’d been in Severus’ rooms since seven. And he’d barely had an hour’s grace between orgasms. He wondered how long he’d get before the next one.

 

Severus finally shifted back and reached for his wand, eyes lingering over the Fire Imp on Ron’s back. He was sure it was unnatural to have such an attachment to a tattoo, but he most certainly did. Just thinking of it sent him into seductive shivers. He cleaned both of them enough to not leave embarrassing secretions for the house elves to find, then threw his wand to the side and tackled Ron around the waist, who was still up on his knees.

 

They landed in a sweaty heap facing the wrong way in the bed, but Severus was too spent to care. Ron instinctively moved to accommodate Severus’ body on top of him, and they met in a lazy kiss.

 

“Mmm,” Ron groaned, wiggling his shoulders to a more comfortable position. “Thank you.”

Severus grunted in response and engaged him in another kiss.

 

It was most unlike him to lie and kiss his way through the aftermath of sex. He didn’t quite know why he did it with Ron; it wasn’t as though the redhead had asked for it. He’d asked for cuddling, and intimacy, but not the slow, steady exchange they were currently caught up in. Severus didn’t even know why he’d even really granted the intimacy in the first place. It was just a part of his nature to do and have done. Up until Ron, he had not seen the point in lingering after his conquests.

 

_He is not a conquest, though. He’s not the one you’ve singled out of a gathering and then wondered how you’re going to get rid of come the morning. He’s always still here in the morning._

 

Severus broke off the kiss with a miserable frown when he remembered quite why they were together that evening, hot for one another and desperate to get their fill. The rest of the school was due to return the next day, and as such Ron’s visits to his rooms had to stop to maintain their secrecy.

 

“Stop it,” Ron whispered up to him. “Dirty distractions, remember?”  
“The later the hour gets the less that works,” Severus told him.

“I know,” Ron did not add anything more.

 

The truth of the matter was that neither of them had heard from Dumbledore since their meeting in his office, and there was no hint in the way he treated either of them about the school. He had said his decision would come before the rest of the school returned and that, as they both knew with cold dread, was the next day.

 

“I can’t stand this, it’s like… waiting for… Oh, bollocks.” Ron breathed shakily.

 

It must have been that he was out of sorts from his climax, but Severus gave Ron a rare moment of leeway for his fear. With strong hands, he took Ron’s face in between them, and looked into his eyes. “I know, I know it’s hard not to know. But we can only wait…” he dropped a kiss onto his reddened lips. “Stay strong.”

 

Ron was surprised by the kind moment, but he didn’t draw attention to it lest he scare Severus off from ever doing it again. He gave him a small smile and kissed Severus back, wrapping his arms around his neck, trapping the shoulder-length dark hair in place.

 

“Come on,” Severus pulled up and Ron, having studied his vampire book much more thoroughly, instantly released his grip. Severus gave him an appraising eye; if there was one thing that Severus couldn’t stand, it was being denied leave when he wanted to move. Ron hadn’t even had to learn that the hard way, he was proud to admit.

 

Severus re-arranged the pillows that had become dislodged by his feet during sex, and settled his back against them, motioning for Ron to crawl in between his legs and sit back against his chest. Ron eagerly complied, slipping into position with ease and he brought the bedcovers with him, covering both of them up to the waist. Severus felt warm and strong behind him, and his chest felt surprisingly broad when those arms wrapped around him.

 

Ron leant right back and rested his head on Severus’ shoulder, and then he groaned in delight. He could feel Severus’ genitals pressing lightly into his backside, but they were completely uninterested, so it seemed he would be receiving a reprieve from their gruelling pace for a while.

 

“Wine?” Severus asked, but Ron didn’t bother to answer, it wasn’t really a question. The bottle came zooming in with two glasses and poured itself.

“Thank you,” Ron accepted his and took a mouthful of the sweet wine. Dry varieties apparently came under the regulations about ingesting sour items. Ron wasn’t going to complain, if he had to stomach wine he was glad it was sweet and not stripping the back of his throat.

 

“So…” Severus searched for a way to break into conversation. Normally he would prefer peaceful quiet, but peaceful quiet would leave them to their thoughts, and that would be dangerous. “Have you done all your holiday work?”

Ron snorted. “I’d done it all within the first three days of the holiday. Probably not well, mind.”

“And why not?” Severus picked a piece of fluff out of Ron’s hair absentmindedly.

“I’m sure it’s fine,” Ron shrugged. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if I fail my Herbology NEWT.”

“Nobody fails Herbology NEWT, it’s the simplest exam on the schedule.”

 

“I think I will surprise you,” Ron laughed and took another mouthful.

“You never fail to,” Severus said dryly.

“Am I really such a shock?”

“Some aspects of you are,” Severus chose his words carefully. “Others of you are what I always thought.”  
“So, stupid, then…”

 

Severus flicked him harshly on the ear. “Don’t be ridiculous. I just meant… your tenacity. You were always an argumentative little shit in the classroom and you aren’t all that different out of it.”

“Oh,” Ron flushed. “I thought I was doing better at being your sub.”

“You are. However I am a perfectionist and there is always room for improvement.”

“So, no pressure at all then?” Ron grinned disbelievingly as he let his eyes roll up to the canopy above them.

“There is absolutely _no_ pressure,” Severus commented. “You will do it eventually, even if it takes years to drum it into you.”  
“So, what happens, Severus, if you know… I ever have a headache, or stomach ache, and I just generally don’t feel like fucking you?”

“Then I will fix you with the plethora of potions at my fingertips, give you half an hour to recover, and continue.” Severus hoped Ron could hear the smirk in his tone.

 

Ron’s smile disappeared, though, and he did not reply to Severus to assure him. Another thing that Ron had learnt was not to bother doing so if it wasn’t the answer that Severus wanted to hear. Challenging words just angered him and Ron was too tightly strung with nerves to fight with him. Which was how they’d come to the sex distraction in the first place.

 

“Are you under the impression that you have to bend to my will at all times?” Severus asked him quietly.

“Well, I thought that was what being a sub was.” The answer was short and curt.

“I expect you to tell me, however, if you genuinely feel unwilling, Ron. You have a safe word for the middle of sex, but it should never get that far if you know beforehand that you need to abstain for whatever reason.”  
“And I’m supposed to believe you’ll just listen?” Ron drained his glass and rested it in the dip between his own spread legs.

 

Severus stared at him in dismay. “Is that really what you’ve been thinking?”

“Well to be fair,” Ron gave a tiny shrug, “I’ve not really thought about it until now. I just don’t like the thought of being at your beck and call, I’m not your slave.”  
“Well, quite, heed your own words. You are not my slave and you never will be. So what makes you think that you cannot object to sexual intercourse?”

 

Ron took in a deep breath and exhaled it in a noisy sigh. “See what I mean? I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed, Severus.”

 

Severus put his drink on the bedside table and wrapped his arms around Ron properly, bending his head so that he could whisper in his ear. “I should have explained.”

“I should have figured it out.”

“We’re doomed, I am too hard on you and you are entirely too hard on yourself.”  
“I’ll handle it,” Ron said with the sort of determination Severus had seen people maintain heading into battle.

 

“Do you find it hard to submit to me?” Severus asked.

“I find it hard not to touch you,” Ron looked sideways at him. “I find it hard to accept that I can’t claim you in the way you’ve claimed me. But I accept the reality.”

Severus pressed a silent kiss to Ron’s shoulder. “Your position is not an easy one.”

 

They fell to silence then and Severus kept his lips on Ron’s freckled skin, whist Ron reached up and placed his own hands over those on his torso, wondering if that counted as acting out of his position.

 

“I like it, though,” Ron whispered. “I like that you treat me that way… I mean, I can’t stand it when people boss me around for the sake of it… Hermione, my mum… It just makes me be more stubborn. But it’s different with you.”

“How so?” Severus kissed behind an ear.

“Well, first and foremost, it makes me hard. I’d be worried if Hermione was doing that anymore, and damn right scared if my mother was.”

 

Severus snorted his laughter and Ron twitched as the hot breath tickled his ear and grinned.

 

“But it goes further than making you hard,” Severus recovered himself.

“Yes… It’s almost like not having to think. I like the escape.”

“I find my escape in doing it,” Severus felt odd confessing his preferences in such a way, but if he was determined to control the lurking need for total submission from Ron, he had to strive for equality where he could. “To have someone at my hands that just bends the way I bend them, doesn’t argue, and I get what I want from that… it’s very exhilarating, and very unlike real life.”

“You’re very believable… so forceful but… can I ask you something?”

“Yes…”  
“Am I meant to be scared of you? Because, really, Severus, I’m not. Not in the bedroom, not of you drinking… I’m just… not.”

 

“I’m glad you’re not scared of me in the bedroom,” Severus replied quietly. “Whether you should be scared of me at other times is something I’m still battling with personally.”

 

Ron gave a nod and relaxed further into Severus’ arms. It felt like being wrapped in a warm cocoon, being held there. It was enhanced when he felt long legs wrap over his own and tug them a little further apart.

 

“Oh Merlin’s balls, again?” Ron couldn’t help his whimper.

“No,” Severus smirked into the skin of his neck. “But I thought a bit of extra contact wouldn’t go amiss when we’re having a discussion of this nature?”

“Okay…” Ron smiled, blossoming with warmth that Severus felt the need to seek extra contact with him when they were already entwined.

 

“Can I ask _you_ something?” Severus asked delicately, looking at the slope of Ron’s neck and the way his skin was so creamy.

“You will anyway,” Ron laughed.

“How do you really feel about what’s going on with your family?”

  
Ron exhaled through his nose, making a discontented noise in his throat. “I miss my brothers… and Ginny, but she can be vicious so…”

“Have you had any contact?”

“I did, actually. Harry came through the fire again yesterday.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Severus realised his tone was sharper than he’d intended.

“Was I meant to?” Ron challenged him edgily.

“What did he want?” Severus smoothed over the bump they’d hit.

“To see how I was and to give me a letter from my mum.”

“What did she say?”

 

Ron didn’t answer immediately and dropped one of his hands from Severus’ to fiddle at the bedcover. “She just said I was ridiculous for taking what she said in her howler literally… and that I’m still her son no matter what I do.”

“Well, isn’t that-”

“She finished by telling me she thinks I’m making the biggest mistake of my life, and when I’m thirty, and alone, she hopes I won’t regret my decision. Nice to know she’s got that kind of faith in my personality and attractiveness, huh? That she really believes I’ll never find anybody else.”

 

Severus wasn’t quite sure how to answer him. It was obvious that Molly Weasley loved her youngest son very much, and didn’t want to see him make mistakes, but then she was advising him to take the route which seemed worst for him. Unable to arrange his words into a comforting manner, Severus merely kissed into Ron’s hair and strengthened his grip.

 

“Could be worse... Charlie gets this every year,” Ron shrugged half-heartedly.

“That’s the one with curly hair?” Severus tried to remember, but there were so many Weasleys that they all tended to blend into one. “Works with dragons?”

“Yeah, he’s a good bloke,” Ron realised he hated talking about them; it made him miss them all the more.

“You could go, you know… just go and see them.”

“What do I say to people who are convinced I’m making a mistake?”

“I can’t answer that for you.”  
“Well stop trying to then, if you’re not going to get past being cryptic,” Ron snapped.

 

Snarling inwardly at the reprimand, Severus reeled in his anger and waited until he was calm again to speak. “Why does he get this every year?”  
“Interested in my family now?” Ron raised an eyebrow even though he was facing away from Severus. “Why?”

“Because you never talk about them, and that is not normal or healthy for you.”

 

Ron sighed again. “Charlie lives in Romania for most of the time. She doesn’t have the same control over him that she has over the rest of us and it drives her absolutely bonkers. Even Fred and George don’t have the same sort of freedom that Char does… so when he comes home, he gets it in the neck, or in letters… ‘Why haven’t you found yourself a girlfriend yet?’” Ron’s voice heightened to accurately imitate his mother. “And that’s normally swiftly followed by ‘Or a boyfriend, I’m not discriminating’.”

 

“Is your brother gay?”

“How the fuck should I know? I’ve barely seen the guy in four years,” Ron shrugged. “If he is I would have heard by now… gossip mill turns fast in our family.”

“So… I’d be right in assuming your family do not know of your indifference?”

Ron gave a low laugh. “You’d be very right.”

“Will you ever tell them?”

“I guess. I don’t know. Who knows?”

 

Severus felt Ron shutter against him and repressed a sigh. As bubbly and humorous as the redhead was, there was no doubt there was the tendency to brood within him.

 

“You are too closed,” Severus warned him. “Eventually we will have an in-depth knowledge of one another. We should get used to it.”  
“I think that’s a bit rich coming from you,” Ron levelled. “You barely tell me anything. We kiss, we fuck, you drink, we have a cuddle, we talk about the present… you tell me nothing of the past, Severus. You’ve got to be prepared to go at this tit for tat.”

“You have told me nothing of consequence,” Severus’ tone was curt. “And everything you want to know of me is major.”

 

“So throw me up against the wall and shoot me,” Ron muttered.

“Look, I’m not going to argue with you,” Severus sighed. “I understand what you’re trying to say. But I…”

“You’re not ready, yes, I know.”

 

Ron made to push his way out of Severus’ arms, to put some distance between them, as when their conversations got fraught that was usually what they needed to relax. But as he moved Severus’ arms tightened painfully around him and held him in place.

 

“I was turned three years ago. You remember this?”

Ron gave a tense nod and wondered where Severus was going.

 

“You also know of my role as a spy between the Dark Lord and Dumbledore?”

 

Ron gave another nod. “A role I didn’t expect, if I’m honest.”

“At the time, you assumed, like Potter, that I only worked for the interests of the Dark Lord, and not your own cause.”

“Yes,” Ron whispered, as shame surged through his bloodstream.

“Well, you were not the only one that thought it. And you know what I was, at least, originally… I did not particularly count as a Death Eater the second time round, and even less so after my change.”

 

Ron looked down at the arms holding him. The left arm was bare of the Mark he had expected to find there, but he had never asked.

 

“Yes, you’ve noticed I don’t bear the Mark,” Severus murmured. “I am surprised you did not ask.”

“I didn’t ask because the war’s in the past, everything is in the past from that time. You were exonerated. And things were different between us than they had been.”

“Not everything from the war is in the past,” Severus breathed. “Especially not for me. In fact to be honest, it is to the war that I owe my current condition.”

“I… sort of wondered,” Ron chewed his lip. “With the timing.”

“You are astute, as I have always known.”

 

Severus smoothed his hand up Ron’s stomach and set one of his fingers to lazily tracing around one of the man’s relaxed nipples. It served as a welcome focal point.

 

“I will tell you the truth,” Severus said in a quiet tone. “My change was brought about by the Dark Lord. When I was in service to him, he often talked of the need to have immortals within his ranks, those who would never be badly hurt by spells. If an unforgivable was thrown at them, it would just bounce off. And your side did not have them. You had a werewolf, but they are different to us.”

 

“Yes, I remember, seeing as I had to move Remus Lupin’s dead body myself,” Ron’s voice was thick with the agony of that memory.

 

Severus ignored him and carried on. “Most of us just assumed that he meant bringing in outside immortals, welcoming them into the fold and burning them with the Mark as we had been. We were uncomfortable with the idea but obviously, we did not protest.”

“Not a sensible move…”

“No. But then one night everyone was called, and he was speaking of his desires, and then he revealed that he had chosen two of us for the ‘privilege’.”

 

Hearing Ron’s sucked in gasp of air, Severus faltered, but then his resolve strengthened. “Of course, one of those two was me.”  
“Why?” there was a quiet horror in Ron’s voice which made Severus again almost stop.

“Because… I suppose he thought there was irony there. I would be a spy for him, and yet cursed to a life of immortality, and should things turn out successfully for the Resistance, as he called you, then I would be around to suffer, and I expect, keep his values alive.”

 

“But you didn’t share his values, the second time round…”  
“No, I did not.”  
“Good, because y’know… that blood you’re drinking is condemned as traitorous.”

 

“Obviously, protesting was out of the question, though to be honest I think at that moment I would rather have faced mortal death than becoming what I did. I was…”

“Shitting yourself?” Ron supplied, with a gentle reassuring squeeze at Severus’ hand.

“Well, if you want to be so crude… I don’t know who changed me, as I have told you before.”

 

“How did it happen?”

“Do you really wish to know that?” Severus asked weakly.

“Yes,” Ron answered firmly, squeezing the hand again.

“You have to understand that the Dark Lord liked to perform. He liked to put on entertainment.”  
“Are you were saying you were the night’s entertainment?” Nausea bubbled in Ron’s stomach.

“Yes, I am. I remember being blinded temporarily-”

“That’s a bitch,” Ron scathed. “I remember that, I got hit with it in the Ministry.”

“Unable to see where I was going, it was all too easy for them, really. Forced on my knees, that feeling creeping on my neck which comes from someone circling you like prey… When a vampire attacks with the intent to turn, the process is painful, as I’ve said before. We are able to excrete our own blood through our fangs when we are in the mindset… and our blood is fortified with the toxins with which to turn.”  
  
“I remember from the book,” Ron said softly.

“It feels like ice,” Severus explained. “Like someone is dripping freezing liquid into every vein and muscle, and it overcomes you part by part.”

“Do you get aroused when someone’s changing you?”

“I did,” Severus muttered bitterly. “And the vampire that changed me knew it, because they were very content to masturbate me into completion in front of all those assembled…”

 

Ron went very still and silent in his arms and Severus assumed it was with disgust.

 

But it was actually a supremely handled attempt made by Ron to keep his fury inside. He had known, growing up in a wizarding family, the corrupt and depraved nature of the Death Eater circle. From the hushed discussions that stopped when he entered a room, to the fear he had eventually felt at their very hands, he knew they were closer to a cult than an organisation. But the thought of the man who so powerfully commanded him being submitted to such humiliation was burning anger through him like a tornado.

 

“Then when enough had been transmitted to my bloodstream, I collapsed, as most do… they all said I took the change badly, health wise, which is, as I’m sure you remember, unusual. Normally it does not affect people.”

“What happened?” Ron whispered.

“Well, I’ve never really known. The Dark Lord saw fit to keep me locked away in the two days it took my body to accept the differences, without explanation, without my wand…”  
“Without blood?”

 

“Yes,” Severus whispered. “And I don’t remember much of it.”

“So then how did you… Bridgette?” Ron was having trouble forming sentences.

 

“They released me at night with the other man who had been subjected to the change. We were both hungry, we dragged the first two Muggles we could find into a dark alleyway. He… killed his.”

“And you?”

“The blood made me feel sick,” Severus sighed. “I needed it and yet it made me want to rip out my own insides.”

“So then what?”

“I parted ways from him; I could not stand to be around someone who had just left an innocent body in, if I remember rightly, a muggle recycling bin.”

 

 _There’s a type of dark humour in that, surely?_ Ron kept his face straight and looked at the wall opposite.

 

“I found Bridgette totally by accident. She recognised my symptoms instantly. And then she took me home with her.”

 

Ron jerked at that and cast Severus a shadowy look.

 

“Nothing happened. She’s a complete vamp in every sense of the word, but she would never do that to somebody so new. She cared for me; she explained everything, the changes which had happened…”

“And then she held your hand through that Depression thing you’ve never spoken about but seemingly forgot was in the book,” Ron said shiftily.

“I was foolishly hoping you would not make the connection.”

“Astute, as you said…” Ron reminded him.

 

Severus kissed into his hair. “It was very difficult… fighting what I was but could not change. I was so lost and all I could think of was how I would never be normal again. But I think… I think that is a story for another night. Are you content with the answers I have given you so far?”

 

Ron let out a choked mutter and burst out of Severus’ arms, he scurried to sit on the end of the bed before he could be caught. Heart pounding, he leant against the bedpost he had been tied to the first time they had fucked. He closed his eyes and clenched his hands into tight fists, knuckles drained to white as the bone strained against his skin.

 

Severus remained in the bed, uncovered by Ron’s abrupt movement; the sheets were down at his ankles. He looked at the hunched form and tilted head and wondered what he had said wrong –Ron had seemed to be taking it remarkably well, up until that point.

 

“Ron?” He tried in a quiet voice, and was disturbed to hear a waver in it.

“I’m fine, just give me a minute,” Ron said over his shoulder.

“Are you… is everything alright?”

 

“I’m fine, Severus,” Ron re-iterated firmly.

“Your actions suggest evidence to the contrary…”

“I’m just… I know you don’t do the whole outpouring of emotions thing… so I’m just calming myself down.”

 

Severus was puzzled by that. “Ron, do you believe that I am immune to such displays?”

“You’ve told me before you don’t have time for it,” Ron still did not look round.

“And that transmuted in your brain that I never want you to show emotion? Are we really back to this again, that you think you must be so slavish as to control everything you assume I will not approve of?”

 

Ron gave a small nod and wondered what was about to happen, as he felt the mattress dip with movement and a rustling over the bedcovers. The strong arms returned around his torso and lips pressed to his cheek.

  
“That is not the case. Do not hide from me.”

“Okay,” Ron mumbled, looking at his bare thighs, swallowing the lump in his throat.

“Did you not consider that the protection would compel me to care for you, if you were truly upset?”

“I don’t want you to have to be compelled to do anything,” Ron said darkly. “I want you to want to hold me. But we’re different, I get it. You’re reserved and I’m… used to wearing my heart on my sleeve, I guess. I get emotional about things which don’t even touch you.”

 

“They say opposites attract,” Severus sighed. “Turn around so I can see you.”

 

Ron took a few deep breaths before doing as Severus asked, and was surprised when the man wrapped him up his arms again and stroked his back soothingly.

 

“I am not cold-hearted. Please remember that.”

“I wasn’t saying that you were! I know that you-”

 

Ron was cut off when Severus caught his cheeks in his hands and smushed his mouth together into a messy pout so that he could not speak.

 

“Be quiet,” he smiled, and released Ron’s face.

 

“Severus… one more question?” Ron beseeched him, bringing up a hand to let his fingers dabble in the dark chest hair. “Your Mark?”

“It seems that Voldemort did not estimate the effect the change would have on the damage he had inflicted to our bodies by bestowing the Mark. It is essentially dark magic and a piece to be carried in your soul forever. I… regard that element of the change, the fact it vanished my mark and healed the parts of me that it had diseased, as the only good thing about it.”

 

Ron gave him a warm smile then and said, “Is it _still_ the only good thing?”  
“You’re a cheeky sod,” Severus rolled his eyes exasperatedly, shaking his head. “Fishing for compliments like you would trout.”  
“I would _not_ fish for trout, it mings,” Ron made a face.

“It what?” Severus frowned.  
“Oh, it’s gross,” Ron explained with a shrug. “I don’t like fish much at all really. Especially whole… no food with a face, that’s my motto.”

“And the bacon sandwiches you sink daily?”  
“Different,” Ron insisted. “Though, my family do keep pigs so I do battle with my conscience sometimes. But I like meat too much to be a vegetarian.”

 

“Your family has pigs?”

“And chickens. And a goat, which was meant to be for milk and cheese but after the fifth black eye and a broken jaw, we kind of cut our losses. She just keeps the grass short now.”

 

“So… do you live on a farm?” Severus asked interestedly.

“No, we just have our own animals and grow our own vegetables. It’s… cheaper,” Ron blushed, admitting his family’s relatively poor state.

 

“I don’t know… drinking cider, keeping pigs… you’re just some rough-and-tumble burly country lad really, aren’t you?” Severus smirked at him.

Ron smirked right back at him. “If you’re implying _anything_ about rolling around in a haystack, you’d be one hundred percent correct.”

 

And Ron bounced away off the bed then, walking casually to the bathroom and opening the door. The candles lit immediately as they were charmed to do and he headed for the toilet, but Severus was in the doorway.

  
“Who did you roll around with and when?” There was an overwhelming tone of demand.

 

Ron aimed in the bowl, “Severus, really, you’re going to stand here and ask me this as I use the loo?”  
“Fine!” was the answering growl and Severus stalked out of sight.

 

Ron cheerily hummed over the noise of his actions in the toilet, hoping it reached Severus because it would infuriate him all the more. He slowly washed his hands and hummed some more, checked his appearance in the mirror _–sex is really bad for my hair!-_ and then stepped back into the bedroom, his feet sinking into the plush carpet.

 

He was expecting some kind of retaliation and it came in the form of a spell which knocked him into the wall separating the bedroom from the office, and his hands were secured tightly above his head, and, he glanced down when he felt the sensation on his ankles, his legs were pushed apart by a spreader bar.

 

“Are you going to tell me or do I have to torture it out of you?” Severus stepped over, tracing the tips of his fingers over the end of his wand.

“Which would you prefer?” Ron raised an eyebrow.

 

Severus tapped his wand at Ron’s crotch and the redhead groaned. He’d been introduced to that particular spell the night before –it was a spell which would place a cock ring on him as soon as he was hard enough to warrant one. And as he saw Severus sink down to his knees, he could only estimate seconds, rather than minutes, before his already spent cock was encased.

 

Severus cast his usual cleansing spells before dropping his wand and taking Ron in his mouth, bringing his hands up to the redhead’s hips to hold him in place.

 

He sucked gently, lapping his tongue with precision and a wetness he knew Ron craved. Teasing him to full length, Severus slid one hand down and rolled the heavy bollocks hanging beneath the cock he was molesting in his hand, squeezing gently and tugging when he felt that Ron would be enjoying the sensation too much.

 

Ron groaned aloud as he felt cold metal appear from thin air and snap around the base of him, too tight to be comfortable for long.

 

“Now,” Severus rose to his feet silently. “That’s better.” He reached up a hand and set thin fingers to playing with the awakening nipples on Ron’s stretched out torso. “Are you going to tell me?” He pinched down hard on one nub and Ron gasped at the sharp pain.

 

“She… she was a girl from the village, she works in the Muggle post office…”

“When?” Severus wrapped his other hand around the neglected erection standing out from Ron’s groin.

“I was… this summer just gone,” Ron swallowed.

“And what did you do?”

 

Ron threw him a desperate look and Severus smirked at him and gave a harsh tug at Ron’s cock. “Tell me.”

 

“I took her for a drink in the pub and we got a bit merry,” Ron gasped as the hand began to pump up and down.

“And then what, you fucked her on your way home?” Severus raised an eyebrow. “And there was me thinking you were such a virtuous country boy… What did you do?”

“She sucked me off first… I didn’t even ask…”  
“Lucky boy,” Severus stepped closer and Ron could see his eyes sparkling with delight at tormenting him so much.

“She was nothing compared to you.”

“I don’t doubt that. I am very skilled. So… how did it go, your first time fucking a woman?”

“It was good…”  
“Did you come?” Severus licked out at Ron’s lips.

“Y-yes,” Ron closed his eyes and tilted his head back against the wall.

“Did she?”

“Yes, oh God… Severus, please…”

“Please what?”

“Stop asking me…”

“No,” Severus devilishly grinned. “Now I’m going to ask about what men you liked…”

 

Ron groaned as his face burned with shame. This was something he had never admitted to anybody before and he was so undignified spread against the wall the humiliation was doing strange things to his crotch.

 

“So… was it one of your roommates that first caught your eye?”

“No,” Ron breathed hard.

“Someone in another house, perhaps?”

“Yes,” Ron admitted and cried out when the hand on his cock tightened further.

“Who?”

 

Ron burned, his confession was going to surprise Severus and he didn’t want to admit it. He’d never even really liked admitting it to himself –not because the person was a man, but because they were supposed to be rivals.

 

“It was… shit, Severus… please…”  
“Tell me.”

“Blaise Zabini.”

“No wonder you kept it quiet,” Severus remained calm but inside he was stunned. “And, Blaise would never have gone for you.”

 

Ron ignored the insult; it was the truth, anyway.

“And what did you think about him?”

“I imagined him sucking me off… touching me… anything… look, Severus, please, I don’t like this…”

“Who else?” Severus said softly, leaning in to brush their lips together.

“Anyone,” Ron choked desperately. “I’m a fucking teenager, Severus…”

 

Severus immediately sank to his knees again and slid his lips around the leaking cock, lapping away the pre-come like one would errant jam at the corners of their mouth. Ron moaned above him and whispered his adoration. Making quick work at teasing more out of the redhead, Severus took him fully inside his mouth and buried his nose in the wiry curls of hair at the base.

 

“Please take it off….” The hiss filtered down and Severus drew back, keeping his lips firmly around the shaft until he sucked off with an indecent pop and Ron cried out his irritation.

“No, I’m not done with you. Did I not inform you I’d have you three times before the night was out?”

 

Severus grabbed his wand and released Ron, who sagged bonelessly, as he had expected, at the sudden release. He managed to catch himself before he hit the floor, however, and Severus directed him towards the bed and trailed wet kisses down between his shoulder blades.

 

Ron was dizzy from the sexual onslaught, but not enough that he was willing to stand for the humiliation he had just suffered. He spun around and caught Severus off guard around the waist, not caring if it provoked his anger. With surprising ease Ron managed to fling the man on the bed and went with him, landing on top of the slender body, their erections crushing together. He bent down for a kiss and locked around Severus’ mouth, feeling hot hands grappling at his back, fingernails dragging over his skin and Ron let out a groan at how it made him burn.

 

Severus was stunned beneath him, seeing the predatory glare in the usually calm blue eyes in Ron’s face, and his breath was stolen away by the kiss. He wasn’t even really aware of grabbing at the skin of Ron’s back, or writhing as sexually as he did beneath the hot body.

 

What jerked him out of his euphoria was the very definite brush of a hand in between his legs, and a finger scraping dryly over his entrance. He blinked madly for a few moments before groaning at the sensation, in a place where he had barely been touched by anybody else in his life. Ron swallowed and continued the gentle movement, not chancing to push his luck beyond a few strokes.

 

“Oh gods, that’s so…”

“Good,” Ron finished for him and kissed him again, keeping his finger busy but not pressing for more.

“Suck me,” Severus hissed, as soon as he broke free of Ron’s mouth, and he raised his hands to guide Ron’s head, not that he needed it.

 

Thrilled with the chance to give, Ron slid down wordlessly and curled his tongue over the tip of the straining cock which tasted of Severus, and of his own pre-come which had transferred. A little shiver ran down his spine at the thought of tasting himself, as always, and Ron hungrily set to task, swirling his tongue around the tip, teasing the foreskin, licking across and into the slit, enjoying the feral growls slipping from Severus’ throat as he did so.

 

And his hand was still stroking. An idea struck him and Ron licked a long trail down Severus’ shaft, then onto his balls, pausing to pay them adequate attention before sliding further down to grace the skin between them and where his finger worked. His shoulders pushed Severus’ legs apart with ease and then without a breath of hesitation, his tongue replaced his finger as he laved gently over the older man’s hole.

 

There was a shout then, and Ron tensed, wondering what would come as a reprimand for his forwardness, but it was only adjoined to a long stream of hissed curse words and a tensing body. Ron looked up just in time to see Severus coat his own stomach with come as he climaxed suddenly.

 

Mouth open, Ron pulled up, eyes wide, and looked down at the way Severus was still shuddering on the bed. It made his erection burn with want, still bound up and straining. Severus caught sight of it and reached out for Ron’s hips, pulling him closer. Then he tapped the ring with his finger, it vanished, and Ron instantly fell over the edge, adding his own semen to that already coating the hot skin of Severus’ belly, groaning and pointlessly thrusting his hips.

 

They looked at each other then and Ron was pulled down into Severus’ embrace, a kiss claiming his lips and their expulsions rubbing between them.

 

“Oh god,” Severus let his head fall back panting. “You…”

Ron closed his eyes and buried his face in Severus’ neck, trying to mask the delight which had broken onto his face at having gotten away with his daring.

 

Their racing breaths slowed as they lay together silently, neither moving but clinging to one another tightly.

“Ron… you are unbelievably reckless…” Severus whispered.

“I know… but you seemed to like it.”  
“Luckily for you… how did you enjoy your lesson in humiliation?”  
“I hated it,” Ron swallowed with shame.

“But you still got off on it… not all humiliation is negative.”  
“Are you trying to tell me that was a lesson in response to my reaction over what happened to you?” Ron pulled up, dismayed.

 

“And if it was?” Severus raised his eyebrows but failed to look nonchalantly imposing with sweat matting his hair.

“Then you’re fucking warped,” Ron sagged downwards again, not having the energy to fight after his third orgasm of the night.

 

He felt a gentle hand stroking across his tattoo and let out a happy sigh of contentment. “See. We are distracted.”

Severus groaned his approval and kissed Ron’s shoulder.

 

“Thank you for telling me,” Ron kissed the shell of Severus’ ear.

“You needed to know.”

 

And Ron knew that. He stored the information away in his arsenal of arguments for defending his lover, should the occasion arise.

 

They did not speak after that, and, as they both knew would happen, their minds turned back to worry as they held each other.


	10. Into The Flames

Severus could have been flying for all he knew. He didn’t feel the feet which were pounding through the corridors of Hogwarts, nor did he hear the way their steps echoed through the stone paths, or realise the way his breath was so sharp and ragged.

 

No, the only thing that Severus Snape recognised was the nauseating fear bubbling through his body, and the way he didn’t seem to be getting anywhere no matter how much he ran. Albus’ words kept floating through his mind, punctuating the sheer dread.

 

_“He will have no choice.”_

Breath escalating to near hyperventilation, Severus ran faster.

 

_“Just as I have no choice.”_

 

Severus jumped off a staircase from the fifth step up.

 

_“I regret what I have to do. But he is my charge.”_

 

He crashed brutally into the outside wall of the next spiral staircase he dove into.

 

_“You are instantly and permanently dismissed. The Governors have called for it.”_

Severus slipped slightly off the bottom step and ignored the pain in his ankle.

 

_“You are aware of what can happen now, Severus… Do not be a foolish man…”_

Severus shot down the grand staircase and swung round the stone newel post, propelling himself towards the dungeon entrance, and his brain kicked into gear.

 

_Please God don’t have left my rooms, please be there Ron, please be there, please be there._

Hurtling down the sloping corridors of the dungeons, Severus didn’t know what he would do if Ron had awoken during his absence and left his quarters. He would not have time to warn the redhead of the situation he would walk into. Yanking out his wand, Severus shot the wards down from his door as soon as it came into his view, and praying harder than he could ever remember in his life, he burst through the door to his office, eyes frantically darting around for Ron.

 

“Severus?” Ron did up the zipper on his coat, not looking at the man who had just burst through the door. “I was just about to head off into Hogsmeade!”

“No!” Severus cried desperately, and slammed the door shut with such force the stone wall shook a little.

 

It wasn’t the trembling wall but the strangled note in his voice which made Ron look up, and his stomach dropped out at the bloodless face, heaving breath and reddened eyes.

 

“Where were you…? Severus?”

“Albus,” Severus growled. “Ron, you… we don’t have…”

“Calm down, Sev,” Ron sprang forward, hands outstretched. “What is it… what’s he doing to us?”

 

“What he’s doing to me is _nothing_ ,” Severus spat with rage, hands trembling. “But you? In the name of ‘protection’ the man is willing to risk your sanity!”

“What?” Ron asked, his voice ashen.

“He has researched an old branch of magic, last used around the time of the Marston Rebellion, though it dates before that. It’s as old as the BLOODY hills and unsafe… I… I never thought he would take this route, Ron.”

 

“Just tell me what he wants me to bloody do!” Ron asked, trying to control the panic rising in him from Severus’ livid response. “I’ll just refuse, Severus.”  
“You will not be able to refuse; he is… _permitted_ … by the school legislation to make you undertake this by force if you disobey.”

“What is it?”

“It is used to prise bonds apart,” Severus stormed up and down in front of his desk.  
“Severus, what is it?” Ron pleaded again, trying to understand.

 

“It is a spell which will diffuse into your very being, your very magical core, and whilst there, you speak the words to renege on whatever the spell is supposed to break…”  
“The Invitation?” Ron gasped.  
“Yes. But Ron, it is _so_ risky. Those who undertake it are never the same -they’re just… shadows of their former selves. Most of them lose all their memories.”  
  
“Can’t he just Obliviate me?” Ron asked desperately. “I’ll do it, Severus, and come back to you.”

 

“He has trapped us,” Severus shook his head, glaring at the carpet. “If they Obliviate you, and then I approach to remind you of everything that has transpired between us, they will call it harassment from a dark one, and banish me.”

“What, can they do that?”

“I am a vampire, Ron. And whilst we are marginally better off than the werewolves, because we can easily hide what we are, the same prejudices and cruel laws exist against us. He has already contacted the Ministry alerting them as to my condition, something he previously promised he would never do.”

 

“That fucking bastard!” Ron yelled. “Severus, they can’t do this, I’m nineteen in March…”

“Whilst you’re a student, Ron… there is very little you can do… he will write to your parents, who will no doubt be shocked… and then…”

“No, Severus, I’ll just quit! I’ll quit right now and then we’ll go somewhere. I presume he’s sacked you?”

 

“Ron, we are trapped,” Severus growled again, rage tearing at every square inch of his body. “This isn’t going to work. If you quit, and we leave –run away, they… they will file an abduction claim. And that is one of the worst crimes a Vampire can be accused of –because they attribute it to the beginning of Covens.”

 

“And what would happen to you?” Ron’s eyes were wide.

“I… I don’t know what method they favour these days,” Severus took a deep breath. “Once upon a time the punishment for human abduction was forced execution using imitative sunlight spells. Not many vampires are dense enough to let themselves be caught these days…”

 

“No, no, no, no, _no_!” Ron said instantly. “So you’re telling me that if I stay, I’m forced into this spell, forced to renege my Invitation, purely because of my age? And if we run, disappear together… then they… you… oh God.”

 

Ron finally gave himself over to the trembling he had been fighting off. “Severus, what do we do?”

“There is nothing we can do… He will be summoning you any minute.”

“I can’t believe he’s doing this… it’s not as though I was forced, I did this by myself!”

“His justification, and he is backed by the Governors, is that you were inebriated when you issued the Invitation and thus you were not in your right mind. And they have the right to force you to revoke your Invitation.”

  
“And afterwards, if I still fucking wanted you? Then what would the bunch of stiffs do?”

“They claim that if, afterwards, you are still of a… mind, you could choose to continue your relationship with me, if you felt the need, but due to my nature and due to yours, we would have to be monitored.”

 

“Monitored?”

“So that I did not turn you… There is a very good reason why my kind take to disappearing underground,” Severus said with an ugly look on his face. “We are so discriminated against we prefer to leave the world which treats as nothing more than scum… as if any of us asked for such a curse.”

“And especially not you…” Ron said softly, thinking back to the night before when he had finally learned the truth about Severus’ change. “I can’t believe he’s doing this to you, does he not have any respect for loyalty, Severus?”

 

“He claims that as I have severed my loyalty to him, he can do the same to me… hence why he has alerted the ministry about me.”

“What will happen to you if I’m… hurt by the spell? Would you… the burning? The blood?”

“They aim for the spell to break us apart, Ron. Only I would have the memories and what does it matter? I am inhuman; I don’t have a heart to break.”

 

“I can’t believe this… I… Severus, what should I do?”  
“I cannot answer this for you,” Severus held his hands up, palms facing Ron. “This is your life.”  
“It’s _not_ my life; they’re going to _force_ me into something I don’t want to do! And something that might leave me so totally un-me I might as well not be alive!”

 

“I know.” Severus’ voice was laced with defeat. “There is no right or wrong. Stay or go, there is danger.”  
“At least if we go, we’d be together,” Ron said softly, with realisation.

 

His mind was a torrent of thoughts. He couldn’t understand most of them; all he knew was that there was very real danger, to them both separately and to them as a unit. And Ron knew how to deal with danger –he’d had enough practice during the war. And he hadn’t survived that to be reduced to a walking shell.

 

“Severus, you’re going to pack what you can. Reduce it in size. Take every blood replenisher you have and your things and-”

“No, Ron, don’t you see? We are trapped!”

“Do you think I can argue with him?!” Ron shouted. “Do you think if I set a foot in his office he’ll let me walk back out of it? No! We have to do something, I will not sit back wait like a sitting fucking duck, Severus!”

 

“But think about what you give up,” Severus spat hotly. “Think of all those you leave behind, Ron –your family, and your friends. You throw away eighteen years worth of that, and you certainly will, because we will have to disappear, you throw it all away for me? It’s just a month, Ron, a month. I am not worth this.”

 

“And tell me what exactly _is_ worthy, losing my memories?” Ron’s eyes were blazing. “Tell me, Severus! Would you do it? Would you step up to the fucking executioner’s block like that?”

“They do not think it will be so risky…”

“And why do you think it would be?”

“Because… Bridgette told me there were ways old magic could be countered… with more old magic, and she told me she would not chance to put an eighteen-year-old through them. I can only assume this is what she meant. I trust her judgement implicitly, Ron.”

 

“Bridgette,” Ron said slowly, repeating the word, testing the feel on his tongue and lips. “Severus… can we get to the coven in Paris?”

 

Severus’ eyes widened. “Ron, I’m not walking you into the heart of a bloodthirsty group of vampires, have you lost your mind?”

“We don’t have to stay there, but they know the city, they can hide us, Severus, we can use them.”

 

Severus stiffened, remembering Bridgette’s parting words to him when he had left on Christmas Day. _‘If you are in danger… you must come to me.’_ The hope of an escape was swept away by despair again as he turned back to Ron.

 

“This is your choice, Ron, it is me, or your past. Your family will be there when you come out of this Renegation, I will not.”  
“And if I do _not_ go through with it, you will be there, and they will not. It’ll just be me and you…”

“Until the Ministry catches up with us… an abduction, fabricated or not, is serious Ron.”  
“I’ll leave a note,” Ron realised how ridiculous it sounded.

“A note?” Severus asked incredulously. “God, are you already out of your mind?”

 

“I’m just trying to find a way here, Severus, I’m trying to… oh Gods…” Ron was overcome with panicked breaths, his chest heaved and he could not find an anchor with which to ground himself.

 

Severus watched him lose control and for once his heart went out in sympathy. Faced with a life changing decision, Severus wasn’t sure he would have handled it any better. He flew to Ron’s side and engulfed him in his arms, stroking at his hair.

 

“Did you know about this? Did you know it was a risk?” Ron muttered.

“I researched when this first happened, and I did not find anything specific. Bridgette said there were ways but she implied such danger I truly did not think Albus would stoop to such levels… and yet he has. The Marston’s Rebellion has fallen off the syllabus at Hogwarts now but I learned about in my time.”  


“We don’t have time for a history lesson,” Ron said decisively. “You pack, right now. Anything you can get your hands on. Do you have money? They’ll block our accounts if we’re on the run, not that there’s anything in mine, of course.”

“If there is one thing my father taught me,” Severus said with a glint in his eye, “It was never to trust banks.”

 

Without thinking any further, Severus whirled into his bedroom and Ron followed, finding his vampire on his knees, peeling back the carpet with his wand and then lifting a stone out of the floor. He reached in, grabbed something, and then lobbed it at Ron.

  
“Sweet Merlin, Severus, what the fuck?” Ron tested the weight of the pouch in his hands and couldn’t estimate the amount of galleons in the shrunken bag.

“My father never trusted anyone with the little money he had,” Severus’ face was set. “And he passed that on to me.”

“So, Paris?” Ron asked, as Severus flew past him and pulled a suitcase off the top of his wardrobe.

 

“Stop talking about it,” Severus whispered. “You don’t know what they’ve put where, or who is listening.”

 

Ron gave a stiff nod, heart beating with the gravity of what they were about to do. It was running away, disappearing… but how could that be worse than the alternative? At least he would have time, time to prepare himself for if the Ministry caught up with them.

 

Items were being summoned past him from the office and bathroom and closed his eyes and took deep breaths. When he opened them he saw a muggle notepad and pens fly past and he looked questioningly at Severus who mouthed ‘easier!’ at him and Ron nodded.

 

“I don’t think you’d have time to get anything from your dorm…”

“I have everything important to me,” Ron swallowed. “Wand, clothes, and…”

  
“And what?” Severus zipped shut the case and looked at him.

 

Ron just pointed at him.

 

“Are you sure?” Severus asked tremulously. “You understand the severity of what will happen?”

“I will not submit to them in this way,” Ron growled. “If we have a chance by running, Severus, I will do it, despite what I’ll leave behind. I need to write something.”  


“Be quick,” Severus watched the determination radiating out of his Fire Imp and was blown away by it. This might not even work, depending on how quickly the Ministry acted. With a dry mouth Severus levitated the case into the office and looked around at what _he_ was leaving behind.

 

_You were sacked anyway. You would be leaving this behind regardless._

 

Severus reduced the suitcase. Thinking that they would have to live a very muggle life, he doubled back into his bedroom, yanked open his wardrobe and pulled out a plain pair of black jeans and a long sleeved black shirt. He changed quickly and reached for the coat hanging up, seldom worn in a world where he could wear his cloak, and threw it on, feeling strangely trapped by the heavy leather.

 

Then he walked back into the office and pocketed the reduced suitcase, saw Ron bent at the desk and walked to his side, reading over his shoulder.

 

_“I am fine. I will not be fine if I stay. Please understand. I know this will come as a shock but I hope you all know me well enough to know I’m unable to give up without a fight. I do not expect your support but know that I love you all very much. Love, Ron._

“I’ll send it along the way,” Ron folded it up and put it in his pocket. “I won’t leave it here. There’s no reason to state the obvious that we’ve left together. If they’re determined they’ll find us, but still… I won’t help them hunt us out. Are you ready?”

 

Severus gave a nod. “I thought muggle was best.”

Ron looked over him and gave a nervous smile. “Floo to the communal portal in London, then apparate out of the country? Down to the coast first, then across the water? I don’t know where I’m going; I’m going to need your help…”

“Do not worry, I will help you.”  
“Severus… the anti-sunlight potions?”

“I have had my dose for today… but it needs to be brewed freshly… I… packed the store I had, three days.”

 

“Alright, so we’ll revert to creatures of the night,” Ron shrugged. “Did you get the vampire book? It’s here; I had it with me last night…” He pointed to the coffee table. “I’m tempted to leave it… for them.” He thought of the letter in his pocket.  
  
“It will do no good,” Severus whispered and summoned the book. “There’s no time…”  
“I know,” Ron breathed. “Time won’t exist for us anymore… it never does when you’re on the run.”

“Ron, you don’t have to…”  
“I will not stay and be mindlessly forced into a spell I do not want to go under! You can stay if you want to; I’m not going to force you to come with me!” Ron’s temper flared instantly, and he looked to Severus with raised eyebrows to see what he would choose. Severus nervously swallowed. “Then, enough…” Ron took that as an affirmative. “Now let’s go before they fucking block your Floo and we’re royally fucked up the arse.”

 

“And if it’s already blocked?” Severus breathed, watching Ron take a handful of Floo powder.

“Disillusionment charms and we leg it,” he said decisively.

 

Severus wondered how the boy was so well versed in the art of escapism. He blinked as he disappeared in a flash, and Severus threw his own handful into the flames to follow.

 

_He surprises me with every single passing day. What on earth am I doing, following him?_

***

Luckily the beach they popped out onto was empty, and the tide was out. It would have added insult to injury to apparate into the water. Ron staggered slightly, steadying himself from the horrific sensation of apparition, and Severus blinked around him.

 

“This is right,” Ron confirmed, looking out. “That’s the port over there, where the ferries leave. The official apparition point is the other way, round the coast.”

“How do you know so much about the country’s apparition points?” Severus asked him, walking close –the beach was cold and windy.

“I got about during the war,” Ron shrugged. “Sort of stuff you remember. Look, there’s a cave over there we can sit in to regenerate.”

 

He immediately turned and picked his way over the bigger stones which acted as covering the further they got from the water, glad he had his boots on as they were safer to walk in. He reached the alcove in the rock and assessed the safety, but there was nothing to fall on them and it was dry. He perched down on a conveniently placed boulder and waited for Severus to join him, which he did.

 

Ron looked out at the steely grey sea battering against the beach, smelling the salt on the wind.

“Think they know we’re gone yet?” He asked, not turning to look at his companion.

“Probably. It’s been half an hour and Albus was insistent he was calling you the second I left the office.”

“But nothing came…”  
“He assumed you were in your dormitory, he probably went there himself… I did not tell him you stayed the night in my quarters.”

“That was lucky. He might have asked…”

“He asked if we’d seen each other since our meeting with him…” Severus kicked at a loose rock on the floor. “Of course, I had to answer…”

 

“It’s okay,” Ron said softly, reaching out and taking his hand without even looking. “I know you’re bound to answer him.”

“Ron I… this is so serious now…”

“I know. I know we might have made things worse for ourselves by running, Severus. But I couldn’t go into his office and be forced like that. It’s not who I am… free spirit, remember? And you… the thought of you banished… It’s inhumane. If running away combats both the problems then I’ll hold my hand up and admit I ran away.”

“Where are you finding your strength from?” Severus asked him quietly. “How can you sit and be so… stoic when you have just thrown away any chance of a normal life?”

 

“Maybe a normal life isn’t what I’m meant to have,” Ron looked at the sea. “There were times I thought that with Harry, that we would never win, and nothing would ever be as we thought we were striving for. We did win. And still nothing’s like we thought it would be.”

 

“What are you going to do about your letter?” Severus asked and Ron sighed.

 

He had been going to send it inconspicuously along the way, but now he was not so sure. Surely it would be kinder on his family if he were to just disappear, to not write an apology that he was leaving them?

 

“You no longer wish to send it?” Severus murmured, and Ron gave a non-committal jerk of his head.

“I don’t know what’s best.”

“Neither do I.”

“Do you feel strong enough to get us across yet?” Ron changed the subject abruptly.

“No, another ten minutes,” Severus assessed, concentrating on his magic reserves.

 

Normally apparition would be no problem for him, but taking Ron in a side-along and across such a large distance was going to be hard work.

 

 _I should not have come with him._ The thought manifested in Severus’ head and he gulped at it. _I should have remained in the castle, let them see me, let them question me… and then sought him out._

“I shouldn’t have come with you,” Severus said, his voice panicked, and he got to his feet. “Ron, I should have remained and followed you later, we have acted rashly.”

“Well, what choice did we have?” Ron looked up at him. “We were scared. Or, I was, I don’t presume to know about you. And I wasn’t really going to leave you behind to God knows what when you’re talking about banishment and executions and… no, Severus. Stop it. We’re in this _together,_ more so now than we have ever been.”

 

A thought slammed into Severus’ conscience then which sent icy tendrils crawling along his spine. _Oh Gods… the Protection. That is why I followed! And why I was so very angry… does that mean I was right regarding the effect the spell would have on him? It was so unlike me to follow… Oh sweet Merlin._

 

“They have no idea I was with you.” Ron ploughed on resolutely, unaware of Severus’ revelation. “If Dumbledore moved as quickly as he hinted, then he might not have known that you ever had time to speak to me. I am just gone. And my bed isn’t slept in. No elves were in your room this morning, nobody knows I was there. I could be anywhere, Severus. And you have packed your most important belongings and left, just as was requested of you when he sacked you.”

 

Severus thought over Ron’s words and calmed slightly, though he was still adrift, wondering what on earth would become of them, and wondering about the Protection.

 

“We were careful in London, nobody saw us before we came here. And now… there’s nobody on this beach. And by the time we get to Paris, we’ll be under the protection of the coven.”

 

“They will not likely protect us long,” Severus warned him, recovering his sense of speech. “Bridgette will do what she can for us but if we reveal the coven to the authorities… gods above, we won’t even get out of the underground metropolis before they tear you apart.”

 

“Me?”

“Human,” Severus reminded him with narrowed eyes. “I don’t know if they’ll even let you in. If not… you’ll have to hide somewhere.”

“We’re going to have to live as Muggles, aren’t we?” Ron mused, dragging his teeth over his bottom lip, looking slightly like a chipmunk. “Cut down on the magic we use or not use it at all?”

“Unfortunately I think that would be best.”

“Severus?”

“Yes?” he sank back down onto his rock to rest.

“Thank you for following me.”

 

Silence wedged between them and Severus swallowed anxiously. _I am not the man to find words for such a poignant moment as this_. He simply reached across and laced his fingers through Ron’s, squeezing them as a symbol of strength.

 

***

“How far is it from here to Paris?” Ron asked, hating that he had absolutely no idea of the geography of their situation.

“About two hours,” Severus sighed, he had his head resting back against a tree and his eyes were closed, knees bent up in front of him and hands locked dangling between his legs.

 

Ron was sat cross-legged on the floor, tearing roughly at the grass between his thighs, twitching with nerves.

 

_I might never see my family again._

 

He blinked, thinking how overdramatic that was.

 

_Is it really? I’ve just… run. No note, no nothing. Only what Dumbledore tells them and when he… they probably won’t believe him that I brought this all on myself. They’ll just blame Severus. Harry will just blame Severus. Fuck._

 

Ron looked at the man trying to re-charge his metaphorical batteries against the old tree, his face pale and drawn.

 

 _How can we know if we’ve done the right thing? I don’t know…we barely know each other and yet we’re…_ He was annoying even himself. Ron was very glad his incoherent babble was not said aloud for Severus to hear, as he was fairly sure he’d be throttled.

 

_But this is huge… I don’t have any experience of living with anybody other than Harry. And that money won’t last forever, and we’re going to need a place to stay and pay rent… oh fuck._

 

Perhaps Severus had sensed his fear, Ron jumped when the man spoke out of the blue.

“I think I can get us along the last leg of the journey now,” Severus got to his feet, brushing down the seat of his trousers and stretching out his arms.

 

Ron looked up at him. “So soon? Are you sure?”

“Yes, please get up,” Severus’ voice was tight –not only due to his tiredness and worry, but because in minutes he would be walking Ron into an underground burrow of vampire-ridden tunnels.

 

Ron did as he was requested and wrapped his arms around Severus’ waist tightly, as he had been instructed to do to get across the channel. He placed a soft kiss on the man’s lips and then closed his eyes, hearing the steady counting of Severus readying his magic, and then felt the hideous squeezing sensation claiming his stomach. They were spinning and Ron kept hold of Severus with every ounce of strength that he had, teeth clenched so hard he thought they might break.

 

And then his feet hit solid ground and Severus staggered against him slightly, pushing him back into a wall. Both of them blinked and the world stopped spinning.  
“Where are we?” Ron whispered, as he heard the sounds of traffic rumbling nearby, and saw flashes of colour at the end of the narrow alley they appeared to be in.

 

“Near the Coven,” Severus answered in a hushed tone. “Look, Ron… this is the first dangerous step for us. You must promise to obey me, never let go of my hand and behave. I know this make you sound like you are five but these are my kind, and I know how to handle them. Please?”  
“Of course,” Ron assured him with wide eyes. “I’m not fucking this up now, Severus. We have to stay together.”

“Don’t even really look at anyone. You… uh…”  
“What?” Ron said worriedly.

“I was going to make a comment about your talent for making Invitations but it’s not really the time.”

 

Ron gave him a weak smile and a squeeze around the waist to let him know that he at least appreciated Severus’ attempt at humour. Severus stepped back, reached for his hand, and then pulled him further down the cramped alleyway, which was full of litter and stank of urine. Ron had to confess it was the last place he’d expect to be the portal into an underground vampire coven.

 

Severus hissed something in Latin that Ron neither caught nor understood, but guessed it was a password from the way the wall suddenly flashed and he was tugged through the blinding light.

 

When he opened his eyes, he was standing in a completely normal hallway, with a wooden floor, plants in pots and what looked like a buzzer system, but one of the biggest systems he had ever seen in his life. In fact it almost took up the entire wall. Severus instantly stepped over to it and pressed a button somewhere in the middle, which instantly phased green.

 

“Thank god,” he muttered under his breath, though Ron heard him. Then there was the sound of a buzz and a female voice.  
“Hello?” It was clipped and undeniably British.

“Bridgette? It’s me, Severus.”  
“What the hell are you doing back here so soon?”

“Do you remember the parting wisdom you gave me as I left on Christmas Day?” Severus asked in a low voice to the speaker.

“Oh, lord. Have you-”

“Yes.” Severus answered her; Ron assumed that was her way of asking if he’d dragged a mortal into their realm.

“Good Godric, Severus. Get down here as soon as possible. Do _not_ let go of him.”

 

She buzzed off and Severus turned to Ron with a grim expression on his face. “No less than I expected. Come on,” he moved off down the hallway, and turned into a staircase.

 

Ron was fascinated as they walked down the stairs, past what seemed like an entire city under the ground. Severus led him past busy levels, further beneath the ground. It wasn’t until the fourth level that they passed anybody, and Ron’s back set on edge at the way Severus clenched his hand tightly. The man stared but did not stop; Ron kept his eyes to the floor as he had been instructed.

 

They descended for what felt like forever, and although Ron was worried about what was going to happen, he couldn’t help but spare a thought for his poor legs when they walked back up again, because they surely could not stay in the Coven. They passed more people and they all stared, and Ron heard Severus mutter that the whole metropolis would know there was a human amidst them within ten minutes.

 

“Nearly there,” he said quietly to Ron, and finally led him off the stairs onto a floor which looked far quieter and more domestic than the others. It seemed to be lined with simple doors which were all numbered, and when Severus stopped outside one of them, Ron recognised the number from the buzzer system on the wood.

 

“Are you alright?” Severus whispered, pulling Ron close into his side.

“Shouldn’t they all be asleep?” Ron asked in a whisper, gesturing at his watch.

“They have ways of factoring it out with the magic protecting them here.”

 

Ron nodded with a dry mouth and took a deep breath, and squeezed Severus’ hand in what seemed to be their new way of showing affection and support.

 

Severus squeezed back and knocked on the door, which took all of five seconds before it flew open.

 

Ron hoped his mouth hadn’t fallen open. Standing at the door was a woman wrapped in a flowery silk floor-length dressing gown, her platinum blonde hair loose and falling straight down her back. She had grey eyes. _Looks like a Malfoy!_

“In,” she commanded, and stepped back so that they could pass, and Ron kept hold of Severus’ hand, even though he could tell the older man made to drop it.

 

The image of the beautiful woman swirled in Ron’s mind and he tried not to think of how very obvious her breasts had been beneath the silk. _Wonder if I could get Severus in silk? … Not the time, Ron, focus. Life and death, on the run… remember._

 

“So this is him then?” Bridgette spoke, folding her arms over her chest.  
“Yes,” Severus flicked her a glance, daring her to kick off with Ron present. “Ron, this is Bridgette.”

 

“Nice to meet you,” Ron said, stupidly shyly, and held out his hand, which he thought would be polite, but the blonde took one look at him and burst out laughing. Ron let his hand fall by his side and did not look at Severus for a rebuke over the blunder he’d just committed.

 

“So why are you here, disturbing me?” Bridgette asked, and then as though she had remembered something, moved and closed one of the doors leading on to the room.

“It’s the middle of the morning,” Severus rolled his eyes at her.

“Are you telling me you only have your little beau here in the dark depths of the evening?” She raised an eyebrow, and gestured to her sofa. “Sit. And for the love of Godric tell me what on earth’s happened.”  
  
“We were cornered. Albus Dumbledore found us out, and conferred with the Governors,” Severus said weightily, dropping down and dragging Ron with him, whilst Bridgette paced in front of them.

“And now what?” she asked.

“They wanted to force him into a spell to get him to renege on his Invitation, like those used in-”

“The Marston’s Rebellion, yes, Severus, that was exactly the kind of thing I warned you about. I cannot believe someone deemed to be the greatest wizard of our time would willingly put an eighteen-year-old through that!”

“Can one of you please explain what that is?” Ron asked quickly, and they both stared at him, making him blush again.

 

“It’s not taught at Hogwarts any more,” Severus turned his head to the blonde in explanation as to Ron’s ignorance. “William Marston was a wizard who had a double life working as a farmer in the Muggle community in the late seventeenth century.”

 

“And when the International Statute of Secrecy came into play in 1692, he was not happy,” Bridgette took up the story. “He had the best crops, the best everything, and was making a fortune selling them to the muggles.”  
“Because he was growing with magic and could beat out the competition?” Ron looked between them.

 

“Exactly,” Severus nodded. “But he wasn’t happy with the Statute as it meant he would be breaking the law if he continued to trade as it was making profit from Muggle ignorance. There were others like him, and the Rebellion was basically them gaining power and strength in their area so that they did not have to obey the law.”

 

“And they probably would have gotten away with it had they not started using mind-control on Muggles to do their will,” Bridgette finished. “But once that started, and there were several nasty deaths, the Ministry acted. However this was a time when they were still worried about the continuation of the wizard race… they didn’t want to waste good, fertile wizards on imprisonment or death. And so they unearthed magic which was old even then. They found out that the rebels had all taken an oath to protect and serve their interests, made a bond, if you like. So the Ministry forced them to break it with the same spell that Dumbledore was trying to force on you…”

 

“And what happened?” Ron asked slowly.

“Nobody died,” she shrugged. “But it was working in their souls and magical cores. Wives lost their husbands, and mothers their sons, metaphorically, because they were so changed by the way the magic had worked… they became despondent, depressed, plenty of them violent… it would have been kinder for them to have been lost physically. Especially as divorce was very much frowned upon at that time…”

 

“And it’s common knowledge that it had such an affect on them,” Severus growled.

“I can’t believe they’d do this to a boy as young as him, in this day and age,” Bridgette indicated at Ron, who bristled at the way she kept on referring to him as though he were a child.

 

“Neither could I.”

“And so… you’ve run away?” Bridgette’s voice lowered to a whisper.

  
“It was my decision,” Ron said loudly, as Severus opened his mouth to speak. “There was no way I was staying for that. Severus was sacked anyway and had been asked to leave the castle. I was leaving anyway, and he… agreed to come with me.”  
“Despite the fact I’d imagine he will now find himself accused of abduction,” Bridgette said with horror evident on her face. “Severus… this is…”  
  
“What choice did we have? The Protection…” Severus hinted at her with a deep look, and she glared back. “I know this is far from ideal. Ideal would be me just getting the sack.”  
“No, ideal would be the old fucking coot keeping his nose on his own face,” Ron cut in.

“ _Ideal_ would have been you keeping your stupid mouth shut in the first place, brat, and never dragging my charge into this hideous mess. This is all of your doing! And now _he_ will suffer because of _you_!” The blonde hissed menacingly in Ron’s direction.

 

“I’ve apologised to him and he accepts that,” Ron said stonily.  
“Well I am his mentor and I do _not_ accept it,” she replied flatly. “I am _extremely_ tempted to throw you out of the door to wander these halls alone and hide Severus away so that he is safe, and you would get what you deserve!”

 

“Enough!” Severus got back to his feet and finally dropped Ron’s hand. “Bridgette, that’s not going to help anybody!”

“And what _is_ going to help you, Severus? Hmm? What? You’re living the life of a fugitive now, not even four years old… where on earth did I go wrong with you?” She gesticulated wildly as she ranted. “This is all because I let you go back! I should have kept you here and then you would never have ended up in this mess.”  
“I had to go back, you know that!” Severus snapped. “And what would you have done with me here? Added me to the notches in your bedpost? To your list of those you have mentored and then fucked?”

 

Ron could tell that Severus’ temper was getting away from him by the coarse language and it would not do for him to truly anger the one person who might be able to help them. Furthering that, he did _not_ want to be the only human in the room during a vampire shouting match.

 

“How _dare_ you? You ungrateful…” she seethed, trailing off with a growl of rage, and Ron’s mouth fell open when she raised her hand and slapped Severus across the face, with a strength which did not befit her slim stature.

 

Ron was up off the sofa before he realised what he was doing: he locked his arms around Severus’ waist and pulled him away, throwing him back onto the cushions he had just vacated, and then placed himself between them, hands outstretched.

 

Severus gaped at him with wide eyes and Bridgette was not much more accommodating.

 

“Look,” Ron said, heart pounding erratically. “This isn’t… Please, Severus, just calm down. I know she just hit you, but what you said was insulting. Just… shh.”

 

Severus opened his mouth to retaliate and Ron cut him off with a glare, a jerk of his head and an annoying ‘uhah!’ noise he had last heard coming out of the mouth of his own mother.

 

_Fuck it. I’ve turned into my mother. This is not a good day, not a good day at all._

 

He turned to Bridgette, who was now looking at him oddly. “I’m sorry, please… he’s just so stressed out with this whole thing and I know it’s my fault, but can you help us? If you can’t we really need to move on. We don’t want to draw attention to the Coven in any way. So if you don’t want to help, we’ll go.”

“I suddenly see what he sees in you,” she tilted her head to the side. “It’s the eyes, so soulful.”

“And the tattoo,” Ron shrugged.

“Really?” her voice grew warmer by the second. “He always did have a thing for tattoos. And piercings… Got any of those hiding away?” She sounded hopeful.

 

Ron shook his head but stored that piece of information away for a later interrogation. This woman had known Severus for three years and she knew so much about him… Ron found himself wanting to unlock her brain and let all her knowledge flood out and sweep him up.

 

“Did you bring anything with you?” She asked doubtfully, looking at how they were unencumbered without baggage.

“Severus brought some of his most important things but I have nothing,” Ron shrugged. “I didn’t have time. They were looking to force me instantly, it seemed. I got out as quickly as I could when Severus was ready.”

 

She nodded. “Do you have funds?”

“Severus does, but I’m not sure… how much does it cost to rent a place in this city? Is it bad?” Ron hated how the questions tumbled out of him ungracefully.

 

“Nonsense, no talk of renting,” she turned and sashayed off to a desk in the corner of the main room, and pulled out a key. “I have an apartment registered under a fake muggle name in the city. You can stay there. It is not warded, which will throw anyone off the scent that is following you. They will expect you to be blockading yourself in with all the magic you can muster. The front door, however, is only visible to the key holder. They never think you’ll just live as muggles in these situations. No Floo either.”

 

She handed the key to Ron who took it. “We need… I don’t speak French; do you have any phrase books or something I can learn with? We’ll never fit in if we don’t learn.”

 

Severus sat back listening to their conversation as though he were underwater. Wherever Ron’s brain was getting its power from, Severus would certainly have liked to have known, because his own was floundering.

 

“Here, these should do you,” she handed Ron several books of different sizes. “Some of them have guides to the city attached, you’ll be here long enough and you should get to know the culture. Have you ever been before?”

 

 _Tourism?! They’re talking about fucking tourism?!_ Severus suddenly felt the need for a very stiff drink.

 

“We need muggle money… Severus’ is in wizard tender.”

“No problem,” she shook her head. “Give me a few minutes to get myself dressed, and I’ll pop up to the bureau de change on the second floor. How much do you need changed?”

 

Ron finally turned around again to look at Severus and felt worried at how pale his lover looked. “Severus, what should we do about the money?”

“Change as much as they can,” Severus replied quietly.

 

Ron nodded and pulled out the shrunken pouch in his pocket and made to pull out his wand but he stopped.

 

“Nobody will be able to tell you’re using magic in here,” Bridgette explained. “How do you think we’ve survived so long, hiding?”

“Isn’t it… scary, wondering if they’ll find you?” Ron asked, voice husky.

“It is… but then we have nowhere else to go. And we live happily enough here. If it all comes to an end, we’ll move on to somewhere else.”

 

Ron enlarged the pouch to its normal size and handed it to her.

 

“Merlin’s balls, Severus, how much money do you have?” She gasped, taking it from him. “I might charge you rent after all.”

“That is a trust fund untouched for nearly thirty-nine years,” Severus groaned, and closed his eyes, thinking of just what his grandfather would say if he knew what his only grandchild was about to use his precious trust fund for.

 

“Every time I see you I’m more upset you got away from me,” Bridgette weighed up the pouch in her hands with a slight smile.

“Don’t start this in front of Ron,” Severus pleaded. “You were never even close, Bridge, don’t torment him.”

“Should I torment _you_ instead then?” Bridgette asked. “By telling you how utterly delicious he smells? How he smells of wine, leather and sex on the outside, and apples and cinnamon on the inside, and how delicious I find that?”

 

Ron blushed and looked at the carpet, ready to pounce lest Severus get angry.

 

“Yes, he does rather, doesn’t he?” Severus replied, and reached forward to grab Ron’s hand, a possessive little move which, although they were in a graver state than they had ever been before, made Ron’s heart absolutely sing.

 

Bridgette looked over at them both and gave a visible sigh. “I hope I can keep you safe long enough. If you’d turn him, Severus, I could have you both in here, you realise? And you could join us like you were always meant to; we’d guide him through his change and be fine.”

“Out of the question,” Severus shook his head. “I’m not turning him.”

 

Her mouth drew into a thin line but Ron looked at her beseechingly and she turned away, disappearing into the room through the door she had shut. Ron turned back to Severus and looked at him warily.

“I’m sorry. You were going to get angry and I didn’t think that would be a good move for our safety,” Ron set the books Bridgette had given him down on the sofa next to the dark-haired man. “Sorry for disobeying you.”

 

Severus looked at him and swallowed. “I need a drink.”

“Alcoholic or iron-ish?” Ron breathed.

“Both actually.”

“Well, wait until we get to her place. Do you think it’s safe for us to stay there?”

“I think so. If we don’t use magic then they won’t really have a chance of tracking us. We’ll just lay low. I’ll only be able to go out in the darkness, and I probably won’t bother.”

 

Bridgette came back then, fully dressed in a robe. “I’ll be back in a few minutes. Don’t go in the bedroom,” she said casually to Severus.

“Why, what have you tied Christos up in now?” he shot at her.

“Heh, wouldn’t you like to know?” She smirked and headed to the front door.

“Bridgette?” Ron stood up from where he had crouched to talk to Severus. “May I use your bathroom please?”

 

“What wonderfully polite manners you have,” she winked at him. “Severus implied you were a bit of a rough one.”

“I’m dragging them out of my arse in the hope you’ll be kind and help us,” Ron told her honestly and he heard Severus choke on his disbelieving laughter.

“Of course, it’s that door there,” she indicated, and left.

 

Ron disappeared into the bathroom and shut the door, leaving Severus completely drained on the sofa. Bridgette’s flat was quiet –whatever sexual position her boyfriend was tied in, he was not making much noise, and Severus was glad of the peace for a moment.

 

The underground Paris Coven was a remarkable place. The vampires there had built up their own world over a course of two hundred years, working hard to prevent discovery by the French magical authorities. Severus wasn’t completely convinced that they didn’t know, and just chose to ignore it as a problem successfully quite literally swept under the carpet. The muggles certainly had no idea what lay beneath their feet.

 

_Which is a good thing. If they saw the bondage rooms they’d probably have simultaneous heart attacks._

 

Five minutes passed and Severus felt as numb as he had earlier that morning when he had flown through the castle to reach Ron before he could walk into a trap. Everything since then had moved with indecent speed and he wasn’t sure either of them was truly accepting what they had done.

 

Ron’s determination was both touching and terrifying, and knowing that they both willingly walked into the flamey abyss just for the sake of dignity…

 

 _And your relationship…_ Severus reminded himself of that with a wry scoff. _No, this **is** a relationship… more than ever now, because at some point it is going to hit him like a bludger just what he has walked away from… and I am the only comfort he will have._

Severus jerked as he heard the front door open and Bridgette swept through and looked down at him.

 

“Here’s your money,” she threw the pouch back down. “I had no idea you were so rich. All those galleons exchanged into about £10,000 in English money… less in Euros, though, which is what you’ve got. Where is he?”  
“Still in the bathroom,” Severus replied, his dry throat making it hard to speak.

  
“Still?” She frowned. “He’s been in there a long time… maybe he’s killing himself so I can hide you away here forever and keep you safe. Gods, though, I’d hate to think of that succulent blood dripping down a drain or something terribly macabre like that… tragic waste…”

 

Severus didn’t even have to growl, his eyes said it all and she held up her hands in surrender.

 

“Okay, okay. I get it. Love him yet?”

“It’s been just a week since I last saw you,” he reminded her acidly.  
“So? Things change. We live forever, why wait?” She shrugged. “Oh, my…”

 

Severus heard the bathroom door finally open and he looked at Bridgette’s face, then whipped round to look at Ron, and could have screamed.

 

“Now, that’s a Ron I could get on board with,” Bridgette smirked, walking up and circling Ron, who rolled his eyes with a slight blush.

 

“What have you done to yourself?” Severus flew to his feet and his voice was several octaves too high.

“Well… I was very easy to spot,” Ron shrugged. “And we won’t be able to use much magic when we move in, so I thought I’d do it here where nobody can tell I’m using it.”

 

Severus’ mouth fell open in horror at how Ron had altered his appearance. His beautiful red hair was now a honey-ish blonde with no lingering trace of auburn at all, cut shorter than Severus was used to in an overly fussy stylish cut with a sweeping fringe. Ron had somehow managed to tone down his freckles, dyed his eyebrows and lashes the same colour as his hair, and…

  
“Your eyes! What have you done?!” Severus snarled.

“I couldn’t go brown, my mother’s eyes are brown,” Ron swallowed. “So I went for hazel.”

“A vast improvement,” Bridgette grinned at him. “Sorry. Every redhead I’ve ever been with ended badly…”

 

“Won’t the charms come off?” Severus asked, hoping they would. Ron looked so different and he wasn’t sure he liked it.

“No, they’re permanent until someone says the counter spell. I’ll have to shave like a muggle if anything grows… not that I can grow a beard anyway.”

 

Severus was speechless and for the first time in the drama of the day, and possibly in three years, he felt like crying.

 

“I’m still me, Severus…” Ron said worriedly. “Just looking different… unless you’re telling me your attraction was all about looks…”

“Severus doesn’t deal with change well,” Bridgette informed Ron in a loud whisper. “He’s a creature of habit.”

“Well then he’s not going to like this very much,” Ron pulled out his wand again.

“Ooh!” Bridgette’s eyes lit up. “Magical Cosmetic Surgery on Severus Snape. To hell with bondage, this is far better entertainment.”  
  
“If you presume to think you are putting your wand anywhere near my face, you’ve got another thing coming,” Severus warned.

“Funny, first time you’ve ever said that,” Ron smirked, voice heavy on innuendo.

“No,” Severus pointed warningly at him.

“Sev, please…” Ron sighed, the brief humour which had popped up vanishing completely. “We’ve got to give this the best go we can.”

 

Severus knew he was right. But that didn’t mean he had to accept it easily. “Nothing outlandish, I’ll be thirty-nine soon.”

 

He watched as Bridgette leaned close to Ron’s ear and whispered something, and he smiled. “I think we’d best be something totally different to what the other was. Though you’re right, it would be good,” Ron grinned. “No, I think that he’d look good with this…”

 

Narrowing his eyes Ron stepped closer and traced his wand in arcing sweeps over Severus’ head, muttering incantations under his breath. Severus saw, as the wand moved past his face that it was leaving a sparkling trail. Then Ron stopped, focussed hard, flicked his wand, and the cage disappeared.

 

“Oh! Very nice!” Bridgette approved from where she had perched on the back of the sofa. “Cut?”  
“It doesn’t need cutting,” Severus said irritably. “I’ll tie it back if you insist on me looking different. I do not want short hair.”

“I wasn’t going to give you it,” Ron whispered, but sent a gentle trim around the ends, adding a little feathering and shaping around Severus’ cheekbones and chin before he could protest.

“Right, and now… your eyes…”  
“You are not changing my eyes, hair is enough,” Severus put his foot down.

“Fine,” Ron let it slide, remembering how sad changing his own eye colour had made him. “Just… Sev, don’t take this the wrong way but your…”

 

Ron trailed off and flushed. With his new hair and lessened freckles he looked somewhat angelic.

 

“What?” Severus growled.

“Nose is pretty distinguishable,” Ron muttered. “If I can’t change your eyes…”

“This day just gets better,” Severus closed his eyes. “Descending into a fugitive _and_ having facial reconstructive surgery… anything else you have in store?”  
“Um, that spell would have changed your body hair as well?”

 

Severus’ eyes snapped open and he glared. “Marvellous. Do what you have to do.”

 

***

It was odd stepping out onto the streets of Paris looking considerably different to how they had entered the coven. Severus barely felt like himself as he kept Ron’s hand tight by his thigh, pulling him through the busy streets.

 

Ron had hold of the enlarged suitcase in his hand, as they had done it whilst still inside the coven’s protection.

  
“Do you know where we’re going?” Ron asked him. “Or are you lost?”

“I am not lost,” Severus growled with such venom that a Parisian threw him a startled look and dived out of his way. Ron flashed the man an apologetic glance as they passed and took a deep breath.

 

Since the appearance modifications Severus’ mood had taken an abrupt downturn and Ron was worried what was going to happen when they reached Bridgette’s flat. Route-marched through packed streets, he was starting to feel tired, his back ached and his feet were sore from boots he never normally wore, but he was glad of their warmth against the bitter wind whipping against them.

 

“Oh, you’ve got to be joking,” Severus said suddenly, and looked down at the address in his hand. “Bloody woman. Apartment in the heart of the… I’ll kill her.”

 

Severus pulled the key out of his pocket and slid down the narrow alleyway to their right, stopping in front of a nondescript blue door. He unlocked it and stepped back, motioning Ron in before him.

“Okay. Bit busy isn’t it?” Ron commented, eyes sliding back to the street.

 

Severus said nothing and shut the door behind him, sliding across the muggle locks even though they would be pointless against those who were looking for them and then climbed the stairs behind Ron. They seemed to go up forever and they were both panting with breath after six separate climbs.

  
“Least we’ll stay bloody fit,” Ron breathed, hoisting the suitcase with him. “No chance of being anything but faced with this every day.”

 

Finally, the end was in sight and Severus slid the other key into the new door and pushed it open.

 

“Is your friend Bridgette some kind of secret millionairess?” Ron gasped, looking at how well they had apparently landed themselves.

 

At the top of the building, the flat was wide open and spacious, decorated in white and black colour scheme, with a striking accent wall covered in luxurious regency damask wallpaper.

 

The living room and kitchen were open to one another, and then there were doors leading off, which Ron immediately pushed open to find a rather luxurious bathroom and a bedroom with a massive bed. He dropped the suitcase and wandered to the window. The view was spectacular.

“Is that the tower?” He asked Severus, who drifted up to look over his shoulder.

“Yes… that will be some view when it’s dark and it’s all lit up.”

 

Severus swallowed hard and wrapped his arms around Ron from behind, setting his chin down on the firm shoulder next to the now-blonde hair. Ron stayed rigid in his arms, not able to relax because the fear-driven adrenalin was still pumping through him, and he wasn’t entirely sure that Severus wasn’t going to go off the deep end.

 

“Relax,” Severus whispered. “This will be a whole lot harder if we can’t act normally around each other…”  
“Was there ever normal?” Ron chuckled. “You have to admit… we’re now faced with living with each other and I think you might kill me.”

“We’ll manage.” Severus said firmly.

“We should go and find food and drink. I don’t want to leave here for a few days,” Ron commented, eyes assessing the view.

“Okay,” Severus agreed without protest. “I will have to drink from you, though, do you mind?”

“Of course not,” Ron shook his head. “How much replenisher did you bring?”

“Plenty.”

 

“Okay,” Ron exhaled, and only then did Severus feel him start to tremble again.

“There’s no going back now…”

“Is that meant to comfort me?” Ron laughed.

“No, but use the words as a kick to your constitution.”

 

“My constitution is just fine,” Ron said, his voice suddenly stony.

 

He turned and faced Severus, taking in the now richly chocolate brown hair, cut more stylishly than Severus would probably like. Ron realised he hadn’t seen himself yet.

  
“Aren’t you curious as to what you look like?” Ron raised an eyebrow.

“I’d not… is it bad?” Severus closed his eyes resignedly.

“No, you don’t look like you, and I miss that… but you’re still in there beneath the hair colour and new nose. Go and have a look,” Ron motioned towards the bathroom.

 

With a fleeting, nervous look, Severus turned and did as suggested, and Ron ambled over to the sofa area, looking at the strange mechanical box sitting dead centre opposite the largest one.

 

_Ooh, she said it was muggle. Maybe that’s a television?_

There was a loud bout of swearing from the bathroom and Ron flinched.

“You don’t like it then?” he called out, walking over with his hands shoved in his pockets.

“I look…” Severus was staring at himself in the mirror, very pale, his hands raised and touching random bits of his hair.

“Good?” Ron supplied.

 

“This is your idea of age appropriate?” Severus rounded on him.

“Severus, please. I barely did anything. The colour is rich and it suits you, it adds a little warmth to your face… or it did, before you went all ghostly at seeing yourself.”

“I notice you didn’t change your own nose,” Severus shot before whirling round and looking at his doctored bone structure.

 

“Do I need to?” Ron asked self-consciously.

 

“What we _need_ is for everything to go back to normal,” Severus said desperately, gripping the sink with both of his hands.

“Well, it can’t,” Ron sighed.

“I know that,” Severus snarled and glared at him in the mirror.

 

Ron thought about arguing, about fighting, but they were both so tightly wound that breaking at that point might well prove catastrophic. He tilted his head back, took a deep breath and said, “I’m going to take some money and go food shopping. I think I saw some kind of market across the road, there has to be food there.”

 

He turned back into the living room and picked the keys up from where Severus had dropped them onto a table. He forced his mind to rush ahead to the supermarket, to think about what he should buy based on his limited cooking skills. And, of course, based on what Severus could eat, thinking that if he kept up a flow of human food his need for blood wouldn’t be so prominent.

 

 _Fucking typical, I can make three types of eggs and the bastard can’t eat them._ His anger threatened to overpower him and Ron shuddered violently as he tried to suppress it. The keys jangled in his hand and his neck crept alive with fear.

 

“Ron?” Severus’ voice was worried.

“I’m fine,” Ron said forcefully. “I’m fine, you’re fine, and _we’ll_ be fine.”

 

Ron disappeared out of the front door, letting it bang behind him, leaving Severus alone and wishing he could at least drum up the energy with which to lie to himself, as Ron was doing.

 


	11. Waking Up In Vegas

Severus awoke with a start, wondering where the unholy racket was coming from. His head was already thumping and he could only have been awake for a matter of seconds. His withdrawal from the anti-sunlight potions was not going well. They'd decided it would be best for him to hoard the remaining vials should they need to travel on, and so he had cut straight off them the day after they'd moved into Bridgette's flat. The unsubtle pounding against his skull made his stomach curdle as he lay on his front in the luxurious bed. He'd still not figured out the source of the noise. Severus cracked open his eyes and looked through the curtains, seeing the fading sky which told him it had to be around half past five. Winter was bliss -the sunlight did not linger.

 

Pushing himself up with his hands, Severus groaned slightly, the nausea creeping up through his body. What he was experiencing had to be closer to a migraine than a normal headache and it seemed constant.

 

Wrapping himself in one of the many sheets on the bed for warmth, he got to his feet and walked dizzily out of the bedroom, wincing as the noise grew louder with every step that he took. Pulling open the door it took a definite upturn and then he saw why.

 

Ron was standing in the kitchen, with his back to Severus lingering in the bedroom doorway. The radio was on, and he was singing loudly and badly to a muggle pop song. Severus saw as Ron turned slightly that he had a toothbrush hanging out of his mouth and his hips were moving in a dance which shouldn't have been sexy but looked thoroughly indecent to those that watched closely. When he revolved at first, Ron didn't have his eyes open so he couldn’t see the dishevelled man watching him, but when he eventually did open them he dove for the radio, red faced and mortified, and turned it off, then spat out in the sink.

 

“I'm sorry! I thought I had a while yet before you woke up,” he blushed, removing the toothbrush from his mouth and holding it by his side guiltily.

 

Severus didn't particularly know what to say to him. He hadn't lived with anybody since his schooldays and had twenty years of solitude battling against his desire to laugh at what he'd caught Ron doing.

 

“How do you feel?” Ron asked quietly, as if trying to make up for the volume of his music.

“Awful,” Severus croaked and coughed slightly.

The same worried look from the first day of Severus' abstinence flashed over Ron's face and he walked closer. “Not the answer I was hoping for.”  
“Sorry to disappoint,” Severus sighed, and turned to go and sink into the sofa. He heard Ron following; the man even walked loudly.

 

“What'll help?” Ron whispered, leaning over the back of the sofa to gently massage at the brunette's tense neck.

“Sledgehammer and a bottle of scotch?” Severus tried.

“Well I rejected that yesterday so I’ll do it again today,” Ron gave him a wan smile that he could not see. “I was thinking more of... I dunno, I could go and try my French in the pharmacy? It's a headache and sickness, right? Ginny gets migraines all the time... Muggles must have their own version of drugs for that? I'm willing to make a twat of myself if it helps you.”

“I thought we agreed not to leave the flat for a few days?” Severus melted into the kneading fingers.

“Well, we can see four electric green crosses just from the flat window, Sev... I’m sure one of them will have something to help? Or do you want me to go and find Bridgette and see if she can get you anything from our world?”

“You're not going to the coven alone,” Severus snapped. “Totally out of the question.”

 

“Just trying to help,” Ron muttered, and then his fingers were gone and Severus regretted chasing them away.

 

Ron walked up to the big window which made up the whole side of the combined living room and kitchen. As night fell over the city, he got a flutter in his chest looking out at it. He'd never really travelled in his life; the last place had been Egypt at thirteen. Even though he was there for terrifying reasons, Ron couldn't believe where he was. The lights on the Eiffel Tower were fascinating and he wasn't sure he'd ever grow bored of gazing at them. Severus seemed unaffected, but then he had been there before.

 

_Not to mention that Severus seems pretty unimpressed by everything... food... baths... and we can apparently add happy singing to the list as well._

 

Learning to live with the grumpy man was a sharp learning curve. Ron had never thought someone could be so obtuse and apathetic about _everything_ , even when outstanding effort had gone into a project, or a meal. And Ron wasn't going to deny that it stung. He was from a world where if he did not say please, or thank you, he was clipped around the ear and reprimanded. Severus seemed to think, at least with Ron, that he was exempt from such manners. To deflect arguments Ron chose to bite down his angry retorts and just got on with it, though it was essentially against his very being to do so. And, of course, he made sure he was sugary polite in response to Severus, just to prove to himself he didn't have to be so rude.

 

Even with the difficulty of the older man on the sofa, Ron couldn't regret his decision to up and leave. They weren't doing badly for themselves and there had been nothing, no hint of anyone tracing them. Bridgette had visited the day before and told them there had been nothing in the Prophet or the French version, but that she would keep them updated if she thought they were in danger. Ron had already grown to appreciate the blonde and her humour, though Severus had seemed more acid during her visit than he had previously.

 

 _Probably hasn't forgiven her for slapping him._ Ron still couldn't quite believe he had witnessed a woman slapping the great Potions Master of Hogwarts. If there was anybody who could keep Severus in line, it seemed to be Bridgette. And that was why Ron thought it best he align with her. Maybe he could pick up some tricks.

 

“So what have you been doing all day?” Severus asked him.

“I slept for most of it, only woke up an hour ago,” Ron said. “Hence the toothbrush.”

“I did wonder...” Severus looked at the television, turned off because Ron wasn't controlled enough to keep his ambient magic from cracking the picture -he could only watch it when Severus was up to turn it on for him. “You seem to have adapted very well to being a night owl.”

 

Ron shrugged. “I'll sleep anywhere, any time.”

“You're lucky…” Severus half-yawned, the movement in his jaws charged the thumping in his head to a new level. “Do you mind going out for me?”

“'Course not,” Ron rolled his eyes. “So do you think I'm asking for migraine stuff?”

“It feels like it,” Severus rubbed at his temples.

 

“Severus... just had a thought,” Ron walked around the front of the sofa to look down at him. “You've not had a drink since the night after we got here... and it’s nearly a week now. Maybe that's making it worse?”

Severus just stared at him, trying to mentally calculate if Ron was correct.

 

Ron sat down next to him and offered his wrist, which Severus took and held in his hands for a while, before lifting it to his mouth and biting. Ron enjoyed the slow thrum of desire which built in his tummy and groin, filling him with comforting warmth as Severus sucked away his blood, hopefully to help alleviate his pain. From the little appreciative groan he heard, Ron hoped that truly was the case.

 

Severus sucked the life force down his throat and thought how Bridgette had been right -Ron did smell, and taste, like apples and cinnamon on the inside. It was that which he tasted as he drank his blood. Detaching, Severus gave a small lick at the point of entry before pressing a kiss to the wrist.

 

“Better?” Ron raised his eyebrows hopefully.

“Maybe, give it a moment,” Severus released him and leant back into the sofa, enjoying the fullness he felt from his feed.

 

“Do you want anything? Tea?” Ron got up to find a mouthful of replenishing potion.

“No, the blood was enough for now.”

“Okay,” Ron tipped the vial back against his lips taking in the least amount he could to stretch their stash further. If it wasn't quite enough it wouldn't matter, he could sleep it off -it wasn't like they could do anything taxing.

 

That was another thing he found unbearably hard; he was in a new city and he just wanted to get out and explore it, but that broke their pact to lay low for the first few weeks, when surely the search effort would be strongest. But it was frustrating to sit and watch the city bustle, see the lights and sights from his window, and not be able to go out and touch it. And again, it seemed Severus did not understand his impatience. It was probably sad, Ron knew, but the thought of escaping out early to the muggle pharmacist was exciting him beyond belief and he wanted to get out before Severus changed his mind.

 

 _Should have saved the blood till I got back..._ Ron thought ruefully as he walked to their bedroom to pull on his clothes. _Yeah, I'm starting to stink... got to figure out that washing machine soon or my pants will get up and walk around by themselves... if he'd let me out I could go shopping... we can't live in the same things forever..._

 

They had spent a great deal of the last week in various states of undress, but they had not had sex at all. They'd barely touched one another apart from being in the same bed. Ron liked the equality of being in a bed which was neither his nor Severus', but theirs jointly, and as such he felt a lot more in control than he had for a month. Severus probably didn't like that, Ron knew, but he wasn't going to submit when he did not have to.

 

The escape had actually done wonders for his confidence, Ron felt. Never before had he felt so definite about taking his destiny into his own hands. Even though it wasn't in the way he'd ever dreamed, it still felt like he was taking a step towards adulthood. He couldn't believe what Dumbledore had wanted to do to him. Bridgette had brought books with her for him to read on the rebellions and he had sat and devoured them, growing angrier by the second. Severus had taken them away from him in the end.

 

Stepping into his jeans, Ron looked over and noticed Severus hadn't even made the bed. It seemed so odd that one so prim had seemingly lost all manners and his tidy nature. Ron grabbed hold of the main sheets and threw them up to air them, before settling them over the mattress and folding them back in half to let the lingering heat escape from the bed. He sighed and ran his hands through his now-blonde hair; he was still getting shocks every time he looked in the mirror. But, his new hairstyle was his favourite part. It wasn't hard to maintain, just a bit of wax. He looked on it as a vast improvement, though he knew Severus did not think so. Even being blonde wasn't so bad, especially not the colour he'd chosen for himself. He didn't tell Severus it was the same shade as that of the girl he had slept with. There was no point making life more difficult for himself than it already was.

 

Finishing dressing and wishing he had something other than his old jeans and jumper to wear, Ron took a deep breath and headed into the living room again to hunt out his shoes. Severus was gone from the sofa but Ron bit down his curiosity; coddling the man would be a move even he was not stupid enough to make.

 

 _Though if that bastard doesn't show me some bloody affection soon I'm going to go fucking mad..._ Taken by surprised by that acerbic thought, Ron located his boots under the coffee table and headed for them, but then the toilet flushed and the bathroom door opened.

 

“The blood worked. I'm an idiot,” Severus growled. “Forgetting the essential nature of what I am. And what it feels like to go without blood. You needn't bother going out.”

 

Faced with it, Ron battled the urge to scream with frustration. How that one tiny trip out had been the sliver of light in a darkened room... and now it had been eclipsed. He froze where he had bent down to pick up his boots, wondering if he had the daring.

 

“I think I'm just going to go for a little walk anyway,” Ron said, and started pulling on his boots; Severus was over by his side in seconds, still wrapped in his sheet.

“Why?” The impetuous demand made Ron's belly roil with indignation.

“Because I need a walk, even if it's just round the block,” Ron did up the laces.

“No,” Severus dictated.

 

Before Ron could retort, there was a knock on their flat door, and despite the fact that there was only one person that knew they were there who would bother to knock, they both jumped. Severus threw Ron a filthy look as if it were his fault they’d been interrupted and hurried to the bedroom to dress; Ron got resolutely to his feet to answer the door.

 

“Hello!” Bridgette said brightly as the door swung inward. “How are... oh. Well, you've got a face like thunder so I won't bother to finish the question, shall I?”

“If you think this is bad wait until you see him,” Ron muttered and closed the flat door again.

 

“What's wrong with you both?” She asked imperiously, setting down the bag she had carried with her.

“I'm just losing my mind, nothing important,” Ron breathed quietly, though he knew she'd heard him.

 

Bridgette assessed him with her grey eyes, which narrowed, possibly taking in his pale skin, tired eyes and weakened constitution.

 

“Severus!” she barked, turning on her heel and sending her hair up in a wave of platinum over her shoulder. “What have you done to this poor kid? He looks like someone's killed his puppy!”

“I was not aware I had done anything,” Severus arrived back in the living room, fully dressed.

“Look at him,” Bridgette waved her hand in Ron's direction. “What have you done?”

“It's nothing,” Ron reached for his coat. “I just need a walk is all.”

“I told you, no,” Severus growled.

“Ah, so that's it. The reason I came over was to invite one of you out shopping with me,” Bridgette announced. “And it looks like Ron wins.”  
“We don't need any food, we're fine,” Severus shook his head.

“Not for food,” she indicated Ron. “He has nothing with him, and he can't go about the fashion capital of the world in the same old jeans... you could be here for months. He needs some things of his own and the shops are open late tonight. So here I am.”

 

“That's really nice, thanks-” Ron spoke as Severus said “You think I'm letting him out of here with you?!”

 

Bridgette looked between them with a cool smile. “Ron's coming out with me, Severus. I will return him to you safe, well fed and human, I promise.”

“You can't take him out without my permission and I don't give it,” Severus growled, folding his arms over his chest and narrowing his eyes.

“Your permission?” Bridgette laughed. “Oh, Severus, please. Don't be a fool. You two are stuck with one another; don't drive the poor lad to insanity just because you're reclusive and depressive.”

“I am neither such thing.”

“Oh, really? Been here a week… gone out yet?”  
“We agreed not to.”

“No matter what you agreed, look at him. He's going mad, I think he's got cabin fever... and being here with you, in this mood, I'm not surprised in the least. I am taking him shopping. So. We'll see you later? Maybe you should go out, drink some blood and feel like yourself.”  
“I am not myself,” Severus told her frankly. “Any notion of 'myself' went out of the window when I was roped into eloping to Paris.”

“Because of your own protection,” Bridgette snapped.

“And I remember giving you a choice,” Ron shot angrily.

 

Severus turned on his most imposing glare and expected Ron to back down. But the blonde just stared back at him.

 

_I miss the way you used to look. I can't cope with you like that. You're not mine._

 

“We'll be back by midnight. I have some things I need to do, but we'll hit the shops, then feed the human, maybe go for a drink and get to know one another, and then we'll be home. Safe and sound.”

 

Severus hated that as his mentor Bridgette was the only person who had ever really stood up to him, ever told him when he was an idiot, or called him on harsh behaviour. Severus glared at her, then Ron, turned on his heel and stomped into the bedroom, giving the door a hearty slam behind him.

 

***

 

“Au revoir, Claude,” Ron tried again as they passed the second to last flight of stairs.

 

The ghost of the elderly woman that seemed to linger in the small landing looked at him, scowled, and floated through the wall.

“She's cheerful,” Bridgette tried to make conversation.

Ron shrugged. “She doesn't answer me even in French. I think a man might have pushed her down the stairs and that's why she doesn't like me... all she’s ever said is the name Claude, it could be her name or someone else’s.”

“She's probably just unhappy there's someone living here... I don't visit it unless I have a muggle I really like.”

“And that's not often?” Ron pulled open the front door and swept his eyes up and down the darkening alleyway, and what he could see of the main street.

 

But there was nobody there. He couldn't sense any other magic than Bridgette's, either. He stepped out into the cold January air and shivered.

“First stop is a decent coat, yes?” Bridgette closed the door behind them. “And no, it's not often... muggles aren't resilient enough for what I like.”

“Somehow I have no trouble believing that,” Ron grinned and stuffed his hands in his pocket.

 

“How are you finding all that with him? He’s very… I have a friend who didn’t walk straight for weeks.”

“Well for the past week there's been absolutely nothing anyway,” Ron shrugged, surprised at the way jealousy surged at the thought of Severus being with someone else.

“Oh dear,” she fell into step next to him. “I think I know why that is.”

“He's not been well,” Ron offered up. “In all his worry the silly bastard forgot to drink from me for better part of the week.”

 

Bridgette looked at him incredulously. “Right. Well, when we get back you're going to make yourself scarce and me and him are going to have a little chat.”  
“Don't slap him again,” Ron pleaded. “He's not over the last time yet and I swear that's part of his bad mood!”

“Cross over,” Bridgette grabbed his arm suddenly. “And remember, they don't stop. You've not come this far to land in a bloody pile on Paris' finest roads.”

 

Ron let her guide him along the streets, drinking everything in with the wide eyes befitting a culture shock.

“I think I need to do some work on the door to the flat,” Bridgette said conversationally. “It's already warded. Some extra magic won't hurt, it’ll be virtually indistinguishable.”

“What will you do?” Ron worried, dodging through some electric doors.

“I think Severus is taking the appearances changes badly. I'm going to charm the door. When you walk out, you will be in disguise. When you walk in, you are yourselves. And that way, you're safe, but together you're as you've always known...”

  
“How do you do that?” Ron marvelled.

“What?  
“Read him so easily!”

“Practice... and close observation. You will get there. He prides himself on being all mysterious and dark, but really he's like a moderately easy book. He claims to hate romance, but really he's a very deep and meaningful person. He's a horrible character because he doesn't know how to be nice, but in the moments he's off guard, he is truly beautiful, inside and out.”

 

“I'm glad someone else sees him like that...” Ron mumbled. “Sometimes I think it's just me...”

“It would be if you went home?”

“I don't even like to think about what they'd say...”

 

Bridgette gave him a sad smile. “It's hard when you're first alone... you miss them. Severus, at least, had nobody to miss when he was changed, when he was cursed to his life of solitude.”

“Did you?” Ron asked, following her without question to wherever she was leading him in the shop.

“My father, around a hundred years ago give or take, was Minister for Magic. There was no way I could go back to him and admit that I had landed myself as a vampire... through my own stupidity. It would have ruined his career... so I just let it look like I had died, and my body never found. It was hard for them, but I have to believe the shame would have been worse.”

 

“I'm sorry,” Ron murmured, not knowing where to look or what to say.

“I do have issues with the fact you've willingly left your family behind,” Bridgette told him truthfully. “But I understand why you did. Faced with the same choices... I cannot honestly say I would have done any different to what you and Severus chose to do.”

“Except he didn't have a choice, did he?” Ron swallowed on the hard guilt which had been bubbling away in his stomach for a week. “It's... the protection. That's the only reason he followed me, he would never have done it without that. He doesn't seem like the sort of bloke to up and run just because someone's given him the sack.”

“No, he isn't,” Bridgette shrugged. “But he could have talked you out of running.”  
“There wasn't time.”

 

“But there's always a choice,” she reminded him gently. “Remember that before you eat yourself up.”

 

They walked in silence through the shop for a while before she spoke again.  
“There’s a reason I hoped to get you alone, Ron…”

He looked sideways at her, fear sparking in his brain.

“Relax, I’m not going to eat you,” she gave him a slight smile. “But I thought… I should probably tell you alone that your disappearance hit the headlines yesterday.”

 

Ron swallowed the bile which rose in his throat and blinked at her. “What did they say?”

“Well it looks like it had been hushed up, actually. Someone at the Prophet had done some digging and then the whole sorry tale unravelled for them, and now…”

“The whole bloody world knows,” Ron breathed.

“Quite. Just the English version at the moment. And they don’t suspect for a minute you’re here. They really have no clue where you went as you covered your tracks so well.”  
“Well, that’s what they’ve told the Prophet,” Ron pointed out. “So… was he right, is it abduction?”

“They’re talking about it,” she muttered bitterly. “I think there’s contention in the ranks. It’s not abduction if you went willingly… they’re probably trying to decide how to make it look like you were snatched. Your age has nothing to do with that, though. An abduction is an abduction where vampires are concerned, I could steal a fifty year old and he would have been ‘abducted’.”

 

“I’m eighteen…” Ron sighed. “Does being an adult count for nothing at all?”  
“Ah, see, this is why it’s been hushed up,” Bridgette stopped them in front of the menswear department. “Dumbledore is pushing his luck and it brings up the whole murky world of something called ‘in loco parentis’, which is basically that whilst you are at school, you are under the care of the Headmaster and he is your guardian. Now, normally, it’s not a problem –seventh years understand their position and its fine. But you surpassed it because you are nearing your twenties and yet he has tried to control you. Some people probably feel he has had no right to meddle as he has.”

 

“But he _is_ the Headmaster,” Ron murmured.

“Yes, and my point is I think he would have liked to have kept it that way… but there comes a time when every great man meets a scandal he cannot beat.”  
“What did they say about Severus?”

“They weren’t actually too horrific, they were shocked at his vampire status but surprisingly someone told them he was changed at the hands of Voldemort… he’ll be just _delighted_ his dirty washing is being aired for the country to see. I left him a copy of the paper in the bag of food I bought.”

 

Ron shuddered thinking of the anger he might go back to, but then he had to ask his next question. “Was there any comment from my family?”

“Yes,” she said quietly. “They had something from your father, and from Potter…”  
“Godric they’re probably hounding Harry up the wall,” Ron was overcome with disgust at himself.

“They both just wanted you home.”

 

“But by myself.”

“That coat would really suit you,” Bridgette sharply changed the subject.

 

 

***

 

“No!” Ron laughed. “He'll be going spare. You can take me up the tower next week if he still won't leave the flat.”

“Oh, fine, you're so under his thumb it's ridiculous,” Bridgette gave up trying to entice Ron up the Eiffel Tower and turned to walk back to the flat.

 

The night was cold and the Parisian streets were quiet, but Ron loved it all the same, seeing all the lights and the old architecture.

“So how do you think you like my fair city?”

“It's great. Traffic is a bit...”

“Insane? Yes, you'll get used to it fairly soon, I'll bet... first time nearly getting squashed will have you right, don't worry!”

 

They walked in silence a while and Ron wondered what kind of reception he was going to get back in the flat, and then he remembered Bridgette's threat of having a little chat with Severus, and her plans for the door. He'd had a few pints with his dinner and despite the upside down nature of his life, Ron couldn't help feeling very, very right.

 

“I'll sort the door out now; it's quite simple, really...”

“If you say so,” Ron snorted. “My eighteen years worth of mediocre magic is nothing compared to over a hundred years worth, I suppose...”

“From what I've seen you're far from mediocre!”

Ron gave her a grimace. “I'm not the best. Surprised I survived the war, really, and so were my friends.”

 

“I think your friend Mr. Potter would have been so relieved for your help he wouldn't have cared if you were a squib.”

“I s'pose,” Ron shrugged, his chest aching again with the thought of Harry miles away at home in England.

“Ah, that hurt, if I'm right?” Bridgette looked at him.

 

He gave a curt nod and looked down at his feet walking along the pavement.

“Losing friends hurts... leaving them behind hurts even more, I think. I hated losing Severus to England when the only reason he was there was little better than being a political pawn. Used and now cast out when he's expendable... it makes me livid.”

“I wasn't happy either,” Ron sighed. “And he's just...”

 

“You leave him to me,” Bridgette set her jaw and turned into the alley way. “Stay back in the shadows.”

 

Ron did as she asked, retreating further back into the narrow path, hiding himself and his shopping bags as she pulled out her wand and starting hissing incantations faster than he could make them out. Blue sparks shot into the door and a haze formed between two blazing lines of sparks, before fading to nothing.

 

“It's just a sort of stasis spell,” she explained. “Which has preserved the spell you performed to change yourself in the door, so that it'll activate when you walk through -in is normal, out is changed. Give it a go!”

 

Ron unlocked the door and pushed it open. Holding his breath, he stepped through the doorframe and instantly felt the tickle of longer hair on his neck and saw waving thick red out of the corner of his eye.

“You're back,” Bridgette smiled at him. “Now, let’s get these upstairs. I'm meeting someone soon and I want to talk to Severus before I go. Remember to give us some space?”

 

Ron nodded as he made it to Claude's floor. The ghost looked at him with calculating eyes, and then Ron nearly fell down the stairs as the translucent face broke into a smile, said a pleasant 'bonsoir!' and floated off through the wall, still looking happy.

“Maybe it was a blonde that pushed her?” Bridgette suggested, nudging Ron to walk again.

“Who knows?” Ron half-laughed.

 

Out of breath, he unlocked the main door to the flat and found all the lights on, but Severus nowhere to be seen.

“Sev?” Ron called out, setting his shopping down by the door and standing back for Bridgette to pass him.

 

“I'm here,” the low voice proceeded Severus out of the bedroom; Ron fought down a smile as he saw long black hair and the usual overlarge nose back in place. “What the-”

“We need to talk!” Bridgette announced and Ron stooped for his bags again, and walked to the bedroom. Feeling brave, as he passed his tall, thin partner, Ron gave him a small peck on the cheek.

 

Severus threw him a disdainful look and sighed, moving to sit on the sofa where Bridgette had sat.

“What?” he asked, knowing he sounded depressed. “Did you tell him about the paper?”

“Severus, see how much happier he looks for going out, even with the paper?”  
“He knew we weren't coming on holiday,” Severus pointed out to her.

“There's a difference,” she shook her head. “He's hurting, Severus, and you're failing to help him.”

“He's fine,” Severus said defensively, even though in his mind he knew that was not the case.

“So the nightmares, the fear, the pain of losing his loved ones?”

 

“He has not mentioned any of those things to me,” Severus raised his eyebrows, inwardly fuming that Ron had apparently been more honest with a woman he had only known for a week than he had with his partner.

“Would you have?” she laughed. “If you were him, and it was you relying on you for sympathy...”

“He knows I am not one for such displays of emotion.”  
“That's no excuse for neglecting him.”

“I am not neglecting him!” Severus hissed, eyes narrowing.   
“Keeping him locked up would certainly count as abuse in several countries.”  
“Oh don't be ridiculous,” he snapped. “This is about survival, not dominance.”  
“Sure about that?”  
“Get out,” Severus got to his feet. “I appreciate what you did for him, helping him out to get his own belongings, it was a very amiable thing to do. But at this moment, you are preaching to a brick wall. So I suggest you leave.”

“Don't make me hit you again,” she sighed, looking boredly at her manicured nails. “I don't like having to do that.”  
“Pull the other one,” Severus muttered.

“I only like it when there's a rebuke,” she winked at him. “But all your rebukes are for Ron, aren't they?”

 

Severus just glared at her, refusing to believe words could be any more descriptive of his irritation. She got to her feet and looked him over. “Shame, the brown hair and nose job really did look good on you...”

“Why are we both back to normal?”

“So you'll have sex with him again,” she shrugged. “You're a strange one, Severus, I’ve never, in a hundred years, met someone as inadaptable as you.”

“So what else has he told you?”

“Nothing more... but he is very, very lonely Severus and if you don't watch him...”

 

There was the heavy hint of suggestion in her tone and Severus balked at it.

 

_Just what is she saying? Is she saying he'll run away? Go home? Or worse?_

 

“Well, instead of wondering what might happen, why don't you stop it before anything has the chance to?” she said pointedly. “I'll go and leave him to explain what I did to the door. I have somewhere I need to be.”

 

She walked close to Severus as she walked past. “I mean it; you're all he has now. Don't hurt him. Wizards get burned in the flames of the fires they create but they aren't all as special as he is. If you want him turned but don't want to do it yourself... you know where I am.”

 

Severus watched her quietly close the door and thought on her words. Ron really hadn't talked to him about anything over the past week, but then, with flushing realisation, Severus acknowledged he had been awful company for those days.

 

Decisively he walked to the bedroom and opened the door, surprised to find only the dimmest lights on and to see Ron sitting on the bed, his gloriously red head in his hands. Thinking on Bridgette's advice, Severus walked over and sat down gently next to him.

 

“Hello,” Ron said glumly.

“How was your shopping trip?”

“Good, I just got some stuff I needed... if I'm ever in the position to, I'll pay you back, I promise.”

“No need for that,” Severus said awkwardly, marvelling at just how much the week seemed to have set their conversational skills back.

“Yes there is,” Ron sighed quietly. “I'm tired; I think I'm just going to sleep...”

 

“Because you would rather do that than sit here and talk with me?”

Ron looked up at him then with a weary face. “No, Sev, actually, I’d really like to fucking talk to you but I don't think we're going to get very far?”

“I'm pleased that we're back to normal,” Severus said pointedly. “What did she do to the door?”

“There's now magic in it which means when we walk through to the outside world, the appearance changes will kick in. But in here, we're normal...”

“I missed your red mess,” Severus gave him a small smile, and wondered if Ron would say he had missed anything about the way he used to look.

“I missed you too,” Ron answered, feeling too resentful towards Severus to highlight _exactly_ what he had missed.

 

“Bridgette said you... you had talked to her about missing your family? And nightmares?”

“I did,” Ron shrugged. “I needed to talk to someone... and she's the only person around that I trust, other than you... and without you I...”

“I understand,” Severus saved him the embarrassment of explaining. “For what it's worth, I'm sorry for leaving you without a shoulder to lean on.”

“The nightmares are just... well. Some about us being found... and others remembering things from the war.”  
“The mind always has a startlingly bad habit of throwing up bad memories when we need them the least.”

“Too right,” Ron nodded.

“Would you like to talk about it? Can I... do you want anything?” Severus swallowed his awkwardness at offering to do something for another human being.

 

“You don't have to turn into my house elf,” Ron grinned. “I'm just... you've been so unlike yourself for the past week... you're the man who makes the bed, then corrects it when the house elves re-make it. You've just...”

“I'm not going to apologise for being depressed by our situation,” Severus shrugged.

Ron turned to look at him with resigned eyes. “But you should for everything else.”

“Well then we differ in opinion. Nobody asked you to tidy up after me, to look after me. You decided to do such things yourself and I will not award you a badge of honour.”

“I don't want one,” Ron growled in frustration, jumping to his feet. “All I’m asking for is a bit of fucking co-operation!”

“And you will get it,” Severus looked at him.

“But, not an apology for the depressing week when I really could have used you?”  
“I am not used to catering for the needs of others above my own, unlike you, and frankly, I think you should become versed in treating yourself as your main priority.”

“What?” Ron gasped.

 

“You need to learn to put yourself first. A lifetime in the shadow of others will always make you feel insecure but now, you are on your own.”

“And don't I just know it?” Ron scowled. “Because I sure as hell haven't had any help from you in the past week. Tell me, Sev, why the fuck did you bother following me?”

“Language!”  
Ron laughed darkly. “We're not at Hogwarts any more.”

 

Severus looked at him with angry eyes and joined Ron on his feet. “No, we’re not. And yet you’re still acting like an impetuous child.”  
“How exactly?” Ron’s mouth fell open. “When all I’ve done is reached out to somebody else for a bit of bloody comfort?”  
“You trust far too easily,” Severus scolded. “You barely know her from Adam and yet you divulge secrets to her.”

“Well, Severus, not to live in the past but I seem to remember it was your ‘implicit’ trust that you told me about to justify your fear of what Dumbledore wanted to do to me… so should I trust her, or not? If not, I think I’ll just head home.”

 

Thwarted in his line of argument, Severus’ mouth snapped shut with an undignified crack and Ron looked at

him somewhat smugly. Resuming his position on the bed, Severus marshalled his thoughts. Before he could speak, however, Ron loped to his side and fell down onto his back, groaning as he went. Long fingers ran through born again red hair.

 

“I’m sorry,” he muttered through his fingers. “I don’t know how to live with you.”

“I have to confess I’m at a loss as well,” Severus turned his body to face Ron’s prone form. “When I found you dancing around the kitchen my mind nearly imploded with the crossed reactions.”

“Sorry about the loud music,” Ron apologised again, wincing at his inconsideration.

“Don’t apologise,” Severus’ tone lowered to a soft whisper, and by means of an olive branch he reached out and gently rubbed along Ron’s thigh. “It was rather endearing. You look delicious when you, ah, what’s the phrase?” He searched for it. “Dance like nobody is watching.”

 

Severus heard Ron’s gentle laugh through his hands and couldn’t help his own small smile.

“I’m a shit dancer,” Ron groaned. “Awful. And my singing is worse. I’m legendary for it. Harry and Hermione disown me in clubs. Disowned, I guess I should say…”

The sadness in his voice made Severus uncomfortable once more. “What did you tell Bridge about how you feel?”

 

“Not much,” Ron shrugged. “I just said I was having trouble comprehending I might never be close to them again… the people that raised and shaped me. And I’ve just walked away and left them… for the sake of my sanity.”

“You feel selfish?” Severus observed.

“Yes,” Ron said quietly. “Selfish because of them, and selfish because of you.”  
“Me?”  
“Without my idiotic drunken babble you wouldn’t be in this mess. Right now you’d be in your rooms at Hogwarts, safe, employed…”

“Borderline celibate,” Severus threw in.

“Well, I suppose one out of three isn’t bad.”

“You think a week is tantamount to celibacy?” Severus raised an eyebrow. “Sweet Merlin, you know nothing. And anyway… I think if you’ll let me, we’ll be remedying that particular problem a little later on?”

 

Ron realised as he lay there that he was so tired of aching, so tired of feeling stretched between a million and one different quarters, that he actually wanted to refuse, for the first time. He didn’t look at Severus, only at the ceiling, but he knew his indecision must have shown on his face when Severus spoke again, sounding dejected.

 

“Of course, I understand if you don’t want to…”

“It’s not that I don’t want to,” Ron sighed, and pushed himself into a sitting position with his hands. “It’s just… I feel a bit like a whore. You use me when you want me…”

“You didn’t seem to mind being a whore a week ago.” It wasn’t said nastily, or accusatorily, it was just a comment.

“I know I didn’t,” Ron swallowed. “And I don’t think anything has really changed… I’m just not up for the whole dom/sub thing at the minute… I don’t need to be bossed around.”

“Sex doesn’t always have to be like that,” Severus pointed out, feeling a fool for not recognising that Ron might feel somewhat overworked, and that being forced in their bed would be pushing his strength too far.

 

Ron gave him a nervous smile before leaning into him, resting his head on Severus’ shoulder. He felt the warmth of Severus’ arm come up around his shoulders and he let out a little groan.

“All I’ve wanted for a week is a proper hug with you,” he breathed, letting his lips brush against the older man’s throat and working his own arms around the thin waist.

“And whilst I’ve been insufferable, I did appreciate every touch you gave me,” Severus kissed into Ron’s hair, feeling that words could not express just how thrilled he was it was back to it’s rich auburn shade. “You are an extraordinarily talented amateur masseuse.”

 

Severus felt Ron laugh against his neck before he spoke again. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Why don’t we have a drink and relax? I’ll make some food and we can just…”

“Yeah.”

 

***

“Why the hell have I been struggling for a week when you are clearly a better cook than me?” Ron groaned around a mouthful of pasta, which Severus had forced on him even though he had already eaten with Bridgette.

“I lived alone for a long time before I became a vampire,” Severus shrugged, though he did feel guilty he had never told Ron that he could cook. “And food was an awful lot more important to me in those days.”

“Is my strategy working, though?” Ron took a mouthful of wine. “If you keep up eating human food your need for blood isn’t so forceful?”  
“It would have worked if I’d taken the time to actually drink from you at some point,” Severus looked down at his food with shame.

“Well, we won’t make that mistake again, will we?” Ron shrugged. “I say once every three days, from my neck, so you get enough.”

 

Severus just nodded, trying to fight down the embarrassment that a mortal was setting out his feeding schedule. _At least he’s kinder than the ministry would be._ That thought sent a tremor down Severus’ spine.

 

“Stop it,” Ron stabbed viciously at the soft shapes on his plate. “Don’t think about it.”

“It’s hard not to.”  
“I know that,” the redhead’s voice softened. “But we’ll both go mad. We just have to get through each day.”

“Night,” Severus reminded him that they were both now essentially living the lives of vampires, even if only one of them carried the official title. “So, do you feel improved for your excursion out into the city?”

“Much,” Ron nodded enthusiastically. “It’s a great place, she was telling me all sorts and took me to an amazing bar in the Quartier Latin… is that right?” Ron shrugged. “Either way, it felt really good to be out.”

“I’ve never been one for socialising, I’ll admit,” Severus stopped for a drink. “Are you particularly versed in that whole… going out business, then?” He said it with a teasing glint in his eye.

  
“Remember how this all came about,” Ron’s mouth hitched into a lopsided smile. “You caught me coming back from the pub, getting pissed with my brothers. What do you think?”

“Once more it seems our personalities are at odds,” Severus mused.

“Sometimes I find it hard to believe we’ll find anything we agree on or both like,” Ron laughed.

“Life would be remarkably boring if we were all the same, don’t you think?”

“Well, yes, but some common interests probably help ease things along.”  
“We both like sex,” Severus smirked. “And massages…”

 

Ron nearly dropped his fork when he felt a warm foot glide up the inside of his leg and settle into his crotch. Burning red he grinned to his food.

  
“And, outside of the bedroom, we know we both like Quidditch-”

“Even if you hate my team,” Ron said darkly.

“Everyone _except_ you hates the Cannons, I’ve told you before this is a fact you will have to come to terms with,” Severus rolled his eyes. “Anyway… we also both enjoy drinking.”

“I enjoy bad beer and you’re a fussy bastard.”

“We both like that muggle programme set in the hospital,” Severus ploughed on.

“I think you’d change your mind if you knew what they were actually talking about,” Ron reasoned. “It _is_ all in French… and, you only like it for that fit doctor. You think I don’t know but I do.”

 

“I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about,” Severus narrowed his eyes and gently rubbed with his foot, still indecently placed between Ron’s legs.

“You said later, we’re eating,” Ron flicked him a cheeky glare and stuffed his mouth full of pasta.

“When did you become so boring?” Severus sighed and let his foot fall to the floor. “What happened to my randy little Fire Imp?”

“He’s on holiday,” Ron grinned.

“Could I entice him back with the promise of a hefty bonus, do you think?”

“Depends what you’re offering…” Ron wasn’t sure he was ready for sex, but he was equally unsure if it was the wine or Severus just trying to make up for being difficult for a week; the fact remained he was very much enjoying the fun side seemingly trying to burst out of the usually reserved man.

 

“I would not presume to know what offer the Imp would accept, I would need guidance…”

“The Imp wants some control,” Ron played along, ignoring how utterly bizarre it felt to be holding the conversation in a penthouse flat in the middle of the Paris, with the lights of the Eiffel Tower twinkling through every window in said apartment. “The Imp is interested in pursuing some… shall we call it ‘back door activity’?”

 

Severus thought about it, and let Ron see that he was doing so. But as usual, he came to the conclusion that it wasn’t even worth beginning. “You know my nature won’t permit you to do such a thing.”

“You let me rim you,” Ron pointed out.

“Whilst that frank description is true, being totally unbefitting to the dinner table,” Severus sighed, “I know it would be pointless us trying. I would not like to hurt you… any more than my actions in the past week already have done so.”

 

Ron did not reply to that, but took Severus’ words to heart. He knew enough to know this was as close to an apology as he was ever likely to receive from the man, and he revelled in it. “Okay,” he nodded. “I was just playing along, really. I didn’t expect you to say yes…”

 

As their hands were occupied, Severus pressed his foot to Ron’s under the table in a soft display of appreciation, and left it there.

 

“I have a question… so, if vampires are dominant… what happens if two vampires have sex?”

“Generally vampires will have sex as equals,” Severus waved his fork as he explained. “There is no determined top or bottom, and they will switch to make things easier.”  
“Bridgette seems very dominant?” Ron asked airily.

“She is. But that is only because her boyfriend is content to let her be so… and not always. It’s lucky for her that he gets a kick out of being dragged around by a blonde power maniac.”

“Dragged?” Ron’s eyebrows rose.

“Collar, lead, the whole melodramatic debacle,” Severus gave Ron an exasperated glance.

“You don’t approve?”

“I don’t see why sex should be anything other than private between the two… or more,” he added quickly, “participants. What they do there is their own business, of course… but Bridgette isn’t necessarily discreet about her perversions, as you might remember from the first time you met.”

 

Ron nodded and swallowed some wine. “Are… are a lot of your kind like that?”

“A lot of my kind are even _worse._ ”

“So… why aren’t you?” Ron knew his voice had taken on a nervous tone, but it was only because sitting at the table, he was holding the longest conversation he’d had with Severus in a week.

 

Severus set down his fork and thought on how to answer. Only after chewing his mouthful around ten times did he open his mouth. “I enjoy bondage, leather and body modification as much as she does. Maybe more. But I would never clip you into a collar and lead you around in public… that sort of humiliation doesn’t sexually gratify me.”

“Because of how you were changed?”

 

Severus nodded. “But to some extent I was like it before my change.”

“How many…” Ron trailed off and flushed, then shook the question out of his head.  
“What?” Severus asked, looking at him, and leant back in his chair, folding his hands in his lap.  
“No, really, it’s nothing,” Ron said determinedly, still red as he looked at his pasta like one might a fascinating work of art.

 

“Well it must be something to get you so quiet,” Severus smiled.

 

Ron just ate his way through his food and didn’t speak again. Severus realised his hesitance and decided to skip over it by continuing with his own food until his plate was clear. Then he stood up and carried it to the sink. Looking out at the glittering view, Severus felt yet again the pang of guilt that Ron had been faced with such a spectacle for a week and had been kept caged because of him.

 

_We set down the rules together… if he was feeling restless he should have told me… but I suppose I would only have said no._

 

Ron made him jump by suddenly slipping his own plate into the sink and sliding his arms around Severus’ waist. Severus turned into the thin, rangy form and pulled Ron close. They met in a slow, heated kiss which tasted of wine and pasta on both counts, though it detracted nothing from the sweetness of the meeting.

 

Groaning slightly into Severus’ mouth, Ron leaned against him, allowing the tension to seep out of his shoulders. He felt so boneless without it. _But then I’ve been wound tighter than a corkscrew for a week, no wonder it feels bloody weird to relax._

 

“I think you need me to teach you something new,” Severus whispered close to his ear, his hot breath tickling. “You need to know how sex can be a healer, with the right person.”

“I’m listening,” Ron whispered back, and grew hard in his underwear when Severus’ hand slipped past the waistband of the pyjama bottoms he’d changed into when Bridgette had been lecturing her charge. Thin fingers curled around his erection, and then Severus pulled his body away.

 

He smiled gently, grabbed his glass of wine from the table, and essentially led Ron from the room by his cock, never gripping tightly or pulling, because Ron went willingly, scooping up his own glass and turning the lights off as they passed out of the kitchen. It felt so sensual, being led to the bedroom by his erection, and Ron wondered just how Severus planned on educating him that evening. It would be their first time since leaving England and bar one wet dream Ron had severely missed what had grown to be regular sexual contact before their flight to France.

 

Severus set his wine down and took Ron’s from him, setting them so they rested on the bedside table, all the while keeping his hand in the redhead’s trousers. The shaft was hard and hot beneath his fingers, but there would be no raucous actions to match it that night.

 

“Lay down on your front,” Severus kissed him, his lips tacking against Ron’s own in sticky movements.

“Should I take these off?” Ron smiled, indicating his nightwear.

“Let me,” the hands were already lifting up the thin Slytherin t-shirt, revealing the flat stomach and creamy chest, deep thatches of auburn curls in stretched armpits and the attached toned arms. When the material covered Ron’s face Severus ducked and latched over one nipple, enjoying the little groan which he evoked. Then he cast it down to the floor and fingered the elastic of the checked flannel bottoms. “These make your backside look delicious,” Severus informed him, but sent them casually to the floor like the t-shirt, along with the underwear. “But I’d prefer it if you didn’t bother with those….”

 

“I’ll bear that in mind,” Ron’s breath hitched with anticipation as Severus slid his hands back to cup his arse, massaging gently.

“Now, lie down.”

 

Ron complied without further comment, settling his head on arms bent flat on the bed, his cheek pressing against his skin. _I wonder if he’s remembered he can’t use magic yet…_

 

Severus quickly stripped off all of his attire and climbed onto the bed, straddling across the tops of Ron’s thighs, sitting just below his buttocks. He smoothed his hands over the creamy rounded shape again, almost groaning as his cock hardened between his legs. He bent his head and trailed feather-light kisses where he had touched, before leaking them onto the curve into the redhead’s back and up his spine, straight through the centre of the Fire Imp tattoo he loved so much. Groaning appreciatively, Ron nuzzled into the bed and enjoyed the feel of warm lips sweeping up his back, knowing that the display of sensuality from Severus indicated that something extremely different to the usual lay ahead of them.

 

Severus leant forward and pressed his torso onto the relaxed back, bringing his fingers up to massage nimbly at Ron’s shoulders. The move brought his lips up to Ron’s ear and he kissed it.

“It doesn’t always have to be about commanding; about having the sense fucked out of you… sometimes it can be beautiful in its peacefulness… something I have not had with someone for a long time.”

“And something I’ve never had,” Ron closed his eyes and groaned again.

“No, but you will have it now,” Severus pressed a kiss to one shoulder and stilled his hands.

“I’m glad,” Ron whispered. “Sometimes… it’s a bit much.”

“I was holding off,” Severus admitted quietly. “This sort of sex… this is the type you have with someone who you feel for… who you know will be there for the repeat performance… a person you can lose yourself in.”

 

As he felt lips at the nape of his neck, Ron’s body flooded with relief he didn’t know he’d been waiting for. “And you want to lose yourself in me?”

“I don’t see that I can deny either of us the joy any longer,” Severus nosed against the red hair. “When we both looked so different I knew I would never be able to. But now you are here, my Ron once more… and I think this is the most beneficial thing we can do for our relationship.”

“I agree,” Ron smiled to the bed sheets.

 

Severus hid his smile in Ron’s neck, even though the redhead wouldn’t have been able to see it anyway. He kissed with gentle lips and inhaled the scent from the tresses. “I’m going to get off, and find what we need. I want you to roll on your side, facing the wall. You don’t have to do anything. Just relax.”

 

Ron mourned the loss of bodily contact when Severus got carefully off him, but did as he was asked and rolled onto his side, wondering what the raven haired man had planned for him.

 

“It has been a long time since I’ve done this without the use of magic,” Severus said quietly, dropping a jar onto the bed.

“Do you want to wait? I’ll have a shower?” Ron made to sit up but Severus pushed him firmly back onto the mattress.

“It wasn’t a complaint,” he said softly, kissing along the outside of Ron’s thigh. “We’ll survive and make do.”

“If you’re sure…” Ron bit his lip and wondered what would happen next.

 

Severus curled into him from behind, moulding their bodies together and neither could have denied that they fit together like the pieces of a puzzle, legs bending together and bodies curving to fit perfectly. Ron felt the hardened interest pressing into his backside and pushed back to give Severus some friction. Working one arm under Ron’s slight body, Severus pulled him backwards with a hand in his chest hair and kissed at Ron’s neck.

 

Dipping his fingers into the cool gel, Severus made sure they were liberally coated before pressing one, unannounced, to Ron’s hot entrance. Hearing the tiny gasp, he smiled, and kissed what skin he could reach, letting his tongue out to lick delicately against the peachy cream skin, all the while moving his finger deeper into the roasting crevasse of the passage. Startled at how much his young lover had tightened up with just a week of abstinence, Severus stopped kissing and focussed on stretching him out, growing harder by the second as Ron mewled against him, head tilted slightly back.

 

Adding a second finger, Severus was ready for the uttered curse when it came, but it was no less of a turn on for being anticipated. A moan of his own escaped as Ron shifted back to get the fingers deeper and brushed against his erection.

“I want you,” Ron whispered over his shoulder, not caring how stupid it might sound, because it was the truth, and he wanted to be truthful with Severus.

“And I want you,” Severus kissed again.

 

Breaking into harsh pants as the fingers brushed against his prostate, Ron emitted what could have been a sob, though his eyes were completely dry and he felt so elated crying had never been further from his agenda. Severus curved his fingers to produce the pleasure again, knowing exactly the effect he was having and how much Ron’s erection would be straining to be touched by him. Sliding his fingers back, he added a third and pushed back in.

 

The whimper told him it was too soon, and he slowed his pace, easing the slick digits in, and the whimper was replaced with a throaty moan. And begging.

“God, Severus, please… put them…”

“Put them were?” Severus asked, voice husky with want.  
“Over the part that counts,” Ron groaned, digging his teeth into his lip as the burn thrilled him internally.

“As you wish,” Severus swallowed and licked with his tongue fully out of his mouth up to Ron’s ear, guiding his fingers to press where Ron needed them.

“Unghfuck,” Ron gasped, body jerking at the sensation of three fingers bearing down directly against his prostate, giving him exactly what he had asked for.

 

His cock was burning with need, leaking pearly drops onto his tilted stomach, whilst Severus’ hand rested against his chest, keeping him in place and a tongue assaulted his neck. It was so slow and sensual he instantly knew he wanted more of it, especially with Severus. The tension of the week and their entire predicament seemed to fly far away as the fingers started to slowly fuck him, moving in and out with agonising slowness, prodding against him when fully sheathed, and leaving him wanting them back when they slid out.

 

Lost in the sensation he did not realise that Severus was whispering in his ear, and when he took a moment to decipher the words, he grew even harder and hotter, his body temperature seemingly taking a massive leap.

“You like my fingers fucking you, don’t you?”

“Uh huh,” the capacity to form full words escaped Ron momentarily.

“And you like that it’s me that has my fingers up your arse, stroking you to hardness?”

“Making me leak,” Ron breathed, face burning at the filthy liturgy being poured down his ear canal like molten wax and the way he instantly wanted to respond.

“I know I am,” Severus whispered, resisting the urge to bite the skin beneath his lips.

“I want…” Ron panted and trailed off.

“What do you want? More? Another finger?” Severus breathed.

“No,” Ron shook his head. “That’s… ah… e-enough,” his voice shuddered as the fingers scraped him again. “I want… I dreamt about doing this to you the other night…”

“And did you come?” Severus sped up the pace of his fingers, aiming to drive Ron to the edge.

“So hard I woke up,” Ron smiled at the memory and grew just a little bit harder.

“And what was it like, fucking me with your fingers?” Severus curved the tips of his fingers and dragged out.

“It made me feel so… good, to bring you off...” Ron gasped as the fingers left him completely and he cried his displeasure.

 

“You might be content to dream of finishing there,” Severus whispered. “But I am not.”

 

Severus reached for the jar and slathered his cock with the gel, hissing with pleasure at the cool substance on his hot skin. His hand ran over the familiar shape, smoothing over the hard ridges with the aid of the liberal coating.

“Are you touching yourself?” Ron breathed over his shoulder. “Let me…”

“Just lie still,” Severus whispered, and positioned himself so that he spooned against Ron, but aimed his erection to slide into the stretched and gaping hole when he shifted forwards, keeping the cheeks parted.

 

Ron nearly came at the very thought, but willed himself to hold on as he was entered, clenching his teeth and panting through them at the delicious burn creeping along with Severus’ erection as it slid inwards. And then Severus’ lips were at his neck, and his free hand was curling around Ron’s neglected prick, stroking gently yet firmly.

“Oh God,” Ron pressed backwards, impaling himself fully on the other man and groaned when he heard the gasp from that refined figure.

 

Pressed together and fully speared in their romantic union, Ron began to tingle. It started in his fingers but swept slowly through his entire body, heating him up, making sweat prick at the nape of his neck, at the base of his spine and behind his knees. As one foot crept over his legs and trapped them into place he moaned Severus’ name, earning a kiss in his hair.

“This is what sex can be with the right person,” Severus whispered to him breathily. “No magic, no filthy adaptations… just this… pure emotion.”

 

The words were simple, and not even particularly sexy, but they flowed like a pornographic montage straight to Ron’s groin and he found himself torn whether to press forward into Severus’ hand or backwards into his crotch.

“Fuck…” he breathed, his indecision proving too much in his heightened state of passion. “Severus I… I don’t think I’m going to last long…”

 

Severus didn’t answer him. Personally with such slow movements he felt like he could lie there for hours, slowly plunging in and out of the tight hole, groaning at the pleasure he felt. But Ron was not as well practiced as he was.

“Come when it takes you,” he breathed finally, eyes rolling back as he found a particularly deep, squeezing angle.

“Can you… talk dirty with me…” Ron breathed, moving his hips slowly in time with Severus.

“When we’re finished,” Severus whispered hotly in his ear, “And you’ve spilled over your stomach, I’m going to roll you over and lick it off you… you are mine…”  
“Yours,” Ron breathed, curling one arm up beneath the pillow his head rested on, as it had begun to ache beneath him.

“I wish I could make you drink it yourself.”  
“I’d rather drink yours…”

“Another time… but maybe I’ll taunt you by drinking it myself as it drips down the back of your thighs…”

 

Ron let out a choked sound of approval at the notion. “I’m so close.”  
“I will finish when you finish,” Severus knew that was the truth. When Ron clenched his body in his orgasm it would push him over the edge into his climax.

 

They lay together, moving almost as one, sweating together, breathing hard as the lights of Paris twinkled through the window. A low whine growled out of Ron’s throat and Severus knew the slow pace was tormenting him; it was obvious he had grown used to their hard and fast encounters, where he could barely catch his breath for the pounding into his body. This was totally different, slow, sensual, and Severus couldn’t believe his good fortune as Ron burst forth into adoration, as if it would get them there quicker.  
“Gods, Sev… you… you make me burn,” he breathed, mouth staying open at the end of his words. “I can’t… this is too… I need you… need to come… yes… gods… fuck me… please, flip me over and fuck me…”

“Just relax and enjoy this,” Severus whispered, barely holding on to his own urges to quicken the pace.

  
“Bite me,” Ron hissed. “We both know if you drink from me we’ll come. Bite me, Severus.”  
“I’ve never bitten you before during…”  
“Do it,” Ron pleaded. “I want to feel it, I want to know how it feels to be fucked and drunk from at the same time… and I trust you, Sev… it’ll be amazing, I know it…please…”

 

Severus had never felt the pleasure of drinking whilst fucking, let alone whilst making love. And it was very clear that they had made the jump into those romantic realms, because there was nothing raunchy or hot about what they were experiencing; it was deep and emotional, the meeting of two trusts being cemented into one with every slow thrust and groan.

 

He bent his head, his hair sticking to his neck. He nipped playfully at Ron’s neck and whispered, “Are you sure?”

“Please…” the whisper was cracked with emotion.

 

Without further hesitation, Severus let his jaw drop, focussed on his want for blood and sank his teeth into Ron’s neck.

 

“Shit,” the desperate sanction from Ron’s lips was music to his ears as the first wave of blood flowed over his tongue.

 

Unable to move his head without risking causing a tear in Ron’s neck, Severus pressed only his hips forward tightly, clenching his buttocks and gripped Ron’s erection and pumped him.

 

The noise melting off Ron’s tongue was like nothing he had ever heard before, a desperate growl punctuated with pleading cries and whining moans, begging for release as the blood left his body and desire permeated every cell which made him up. The usual sensations he experienced whilst being drunk from amplified coupling the act with sex and he felt ready to explode.

“Severus, Gods… I want you… you feel so good in me… and now you’re… oh…”

 

Words were swept away as the intensity stepped up several notches and his balls tightened to his body. He felt raw enough to recognise that his orgasm was going to be utterly undignified. It took several blinks for Ron to realise there were tears pricking in the corners of his eyes.

 

Another tingling surge was enough to cut through his control and he shouted out his climax, pumping sticky white fluid out onto his belly, over Severus’ hand and onto the bed as he trembled and clenched with curled toes. Severus detached and grunted his own finish into Ron’s neck as those tight muscles gripped around him, squeezing his cock with intense heat. He thrust through it, groaning Ron’s name all the while, making the redhead flush with the praise.

 

But shivering through his aftershocks, Ron knew what was coming. Severus was still buried balls deep within him yet his orgasm had unlocked a whirlwind of emotion in his chest and nothing he could do was going to keep it in.

“Sev…” he choked, reaching up with one hand to clutch at the one resting on his chest, searching for solace.

 

Realising that Ron’s shaking was no longer just from his orgasm Severus swallowed and tightened his grip, bringing his sticky hand off the softening member to rest across the stickier stomach. He buried his face in the red hair and whispered softly to the shaking man in his arms.

“I understand… I’m here.”

 

Those words unlocked the final padlock and Ron closed his eyes, tears rolling down his cheeks as his eyelids forced them out of their way. A hideous choking, snorting sob broke out of his mouth and he wanted to combust with shame.

 

“I’m sorry,” he licked his lips, pointlessly, as salty tears re-coated them instantly. “That was amazing… the most…”  
“I know,” Severus said firmly in his ear. “But the horrible thing about that kind of sex… it makes you feel and it breaks down your guard and all your inner walls and there is nothing you can do…”

“Why did you do it?” Ron asked through his tears. “If you k-knew…”

“Because those walls have to fall down eventually.”

 

Ron fell silent, managing to just let the tears slide down his face without noise and his chest fell into a slow, steady rhythm with Severus’ and his hand resting on top of it. Though Severus’ heart was beating fast, he did nothing more than lie there, pressed into the warm body and holding it through the first truly physical display of grief Ron had ever really shown to him.

 

 _Anger is nothing compared to this…_ Severus kissed gently against Ron’s hair. _This so much worse. Crying never gets me… and yet here I am with him._

 

Severus didn’t like that he found he could no longer distinguish his own wants from what the Protection made him do. He could not help but wonder if he would have lain against Ron, holding him, without it. What baffled him the most was that he honestly could not decide on the correct answer whereas once upon a time it would have been an unequivocal no.

 

“You don’t have to stay with me,” Ron whispered miserably. “I’m sorry.”

“Shh,” Severus muttered. “I want to stay, and I should have been there for this earlier in the week.”

Ron shrugged in his arms and murmured, “Okay.”

 

Severus watched the minutes slip by on the digital clock next to their abandoned drinks, amazed at just how many tears poured out of the body by his side. Ron was very quiet, just breathing and crying and Severus would have given anything to have his wand in hand and to slip into the redhead’s mind, just to understand better. His want to understand surprised him –he had never been one for helping others to wallow in their grief, but with Ron it seemed different, and above all else, justified.

 

“Would you like to talk about it?” He asked finally, and Ron jumped, having fallen into a trance looking at the opposite wall.

“No,” his answering voice was hoarse and cracked, broken with the emotion of the sex and the outpouring of emotions having outstayed their welcome in his mind. “There’s nothing to talk about. There’s no point in trailing back over the past… it can’t come back and it can’t be changed.”  
“No, it can’t,” Severus conceded with a gentle kiss. “But the present we can do something about.”

 

He shifted his hips backwards, pulling his softened cock from within Ron, and removed his arms, ignoring the drying semen on his hand. Wordlessly he got off the bed and left the bedroom, turning to the bathroom, flicking on the lights and bending over the bath, turning on the taps and letting the plug fall in. He grabbed the first bottle he saw on the side, which wasn’t theirs but he didn’t think Bridgette would particularly care. The scent of sweet baked goods hit his nose the second the foam blossomed in the water and he turned away.

 

Ron was where he had left him, curled up on his side on the bed. Severus walked to his side and looked down at his face, which was so red raw it had to be painful –despite the digs he had made previously, Severus knew crying wasn’t something the youngest Weasley male gave himself up to regularly.

 

“Come on,” Severus reached forward and with surprising ease swept him off the bed.

“What are you doing?” Ron’s voice was dull and lifeless as he stood and swayed with a light head against Severus’ naked body.

 

Severus’ only answer was a kiss –he wasn’t going to hurt Ron with misplaced words, so he made the decision to keep quiet. Keeping a tight grip on his hand, Severus led him into the bathroom where the bath was already nearly full. Ron looked at him with confused eyes.

“Get in,” Severus whispered. “I’ll just be a minute.”

 

He doubled back into their bedroom for the forgotten drinks, vaguely aware of a sensation in his stomach which may have been nerves. His mind flicked back to think of the last kind gesture he had made such as this and was startled to find he couldn’t really recall it.

 

 _God, you’re a bastard…_ He walked back in the bathroom and at first thought Ron had left it, but then the redhead broke the surface of the water, his hair plastered to his head, eyes screwed up against the bubbles which slid down his face, carrying away the salty tear tracks which had lingered there. Severus said nothing as he climbed in behind him, setting the drinks down on the windowsill, and Ron didn’t comment when long arms and legs ensconced him from behind –he only leaned gratefully back into the touch. He reached for his wine without waiting to be offered and took a long sip, his throat welcoming the still-cool liquid.

 

Severus wanted nothing more than to look at his face, but understood how Ron would shy away from that whilst his eyes still bore the proof of his breaking.

 

“Thank you,” Ron finally whispered, swirling some of the bubbles with his feet, stretched all the way out in front of him due to the ample size of the bath.

“Is that…” Severus had been about to finish with ‘better’, but he didn’t know if that was the correct thing to say.

“I feel lighter,” Ron said gently, realising his partner’s awkwardness. “And I’m just saying thank you because it meant a lot that you stayed.”

 

“Why would I have done anything else?” That, at least, was a very genuinely surprised question on Severus’ behalf. _Does he really think I would have left him to cry it out alone?_

“I suppose… I still don’t think you’ll tolerate my emotions,” Ron whispered.

 

Severus said nothing, because his recent and current actions showed just how tolerant he was prepared to be of his Fire Imp’s emotional nature. _As long as it’s not every bloody day, of course…_

 

He mentally chided himself for being so cruel. If Ron had wanted to cry every day, he would have been justified, far away from home having kissed goodbye to his life, family and friends. They had not spoken about the article in the Prophet, but they both knew what has caused Ron to finally lose his tightly held control on his emotions.

 

“It won’t happen again,” Ron assured him after a mouthful of wine. “Or I’ll try…”

“You don’t have to hold it in,” Severus rested his chin on the shoulder in front of him. “That’s unhealthy… we need to…” the next words were hard to force out, being sentimental and overly cliché, “Look after one another.”

“You’re all I have,” Ron murmured.

“And yet for me… I have gained a companion. You have lost yours. We face this from different angles.”

“Did I say I was complaining?” there was a faint trace of humour back in Ron’s voice.

“You’d be warranted to do so, as this last week has detailed, I am hideous company.”

“I forgive you,” Ron smiled to the bathwater. “After that sort of sex how could I not?”

“All part of my brilliantly evil plan, I assure you,” Severus took a sip of wine, glad Ron could not see the sudden brightness of his eyes and beaming smile.

 

Or the way it doubled when Ron’s warm laugh hit the bathroom tiles.

 


	12. The Loving Kind

“No, no… fuck…”

 

Ron closed his eyes and let them roll back in his head, thinking absentmindedly that it was a good thing nobody lived in the building with them. The bed was making an indecent drumming rhythm on the wall as Severus drove into him. The thoughts were torn from his mind as he cried out in a series of pleas, begging for it harder, faster and louder.

 

Severus would never admit it but he was having a hard time keeping up. Sweat trickled over his temples and his body was covered in a fine sheen of perspiration, his breath wheezing with every thrust of his hips.

 

Ron was on his back, his head thrown against the pillows with his mouth open when he wasn’t begging for more. His long legs extended up the front of Severus’ body and bent over his shoulders, feet locked behind his neck. Looking down Severus had a blatant and indecent view of the cock straining against the muggle cock ring, which would never be as effective as what he could have produced with his wand but it was holding up thus far.

 

“Fuck me deeper,” Ron growled, straining his arms from where they were tied above his head.

“If you wanted to touch yourself you should have considered that before you fondled me in all the wrong places whilst I was asleep.”

“S-shut up,” Ron gasped as he felt a hand grip his dick and tug painfully. “I was just…”  
“I don’t care what you were,” Severus shook his head, sweaty hair flying about his face in the process. “I’ve told you before; you do _not_ touch me like that without my permission for your own safety…”  
“I’m s-sorry…”  
“Sorry enough to stop you doing it again?” Severus rubbed his thumb across the leaking slit.

“Yes,” Ron still had his eyes closed, raising his hips with every thrust into his body.

“Liar,” Severus muttered.

 

They stayed that way for a few minutes, Severus snapping his hips back and forth in a punishing pace, gripping Ron’s erection tightly whilst the redhead begged and pleaded for his release, growling with frustration when none was granted.

 

Watching him like that, Severus lost his usually tightly held control and gave himself over to his orgasm long before he would usually have done. He liked to feel his partners climax first; it was usually what gave him the drive to achieve his own. But Ron was essentially being punished and to see him so desperate and wanton, to feel him so hard in his hand was going to be more than enough. Dropping the cock he held, Severus bucked twice out of rhythm as he spiralled into pleasure, pumping his seed into Ron’s restrained body, groaning out his name with an animalistic voice.

 

Ron froze as he felt heat deep within him and watched Severus shudder above his body, face contorted into a sexual snarl with his eyes firmly closed. Possessive hands gripped his legs tightly and Ron gasped and shivered as he would have had he been heading into orgasm, but the band around his dick prevented him from doing so.

 

“My my, a dry orgasm…” Severus opened his eyes, having recognised Ron’s reaction in the way he had clenched tightly around his own still twitching cock. Breathing heavily, Severus pulled out and shoved Ron’s legs sideways off his shoulders; they fell with a muted thump to the bed and left Ron spread with his arms tied above him, torso stretched out and his legs wide. “I’ve half a mind to just leave you here… I do need to go out this evening…”

“No, Sev, please…” Ron resented the way all of his power had been taken from him and he groaned when one long finger ran up his shaft.

“Please what?”  
“Don’t leave,” Ron choked, as his erection flexed against the touch unwillingly.

 

Severus looked down at him and smiled cruelly. “You couldn’t do a thing about it if I decided to leave… why on earth should I listen to your pleas?”

“Because…” Ron trailed off, gasping, as the finger slid down in between his legs and prodded at his abused entrance.

“I’m waiting,” Severus crooked an eyebrow at him.

“Because you wouldn’t do that to me,” Ron finally breathed as the finger slipped inside of him, collecting Severus’ leaking come on its skin as it did so.

“I wish I could say you were wrong,” Severus sighed, sliding the finger back out.

 

He got down on his knees between Ron’s legs and ignored them as they cracked. Lowering his face he kissed at the reddened sac which contracted eagerly at his touch, and the redhead hissed in delight. His hips already helpfully propped up on a pillow and legs wantonly spread, Severus was able to lick in a straight line down to lap at the entrance he had been engulfed within only minutes before. Ron shuddered as his tongue laved, and Severus tasted himself.

“You’re so filthy,” Ron felt the tongue slide within him and groaned heavily. “You don’t have to…”  
“Do you want to come or not?” Severus hissed, sitting up and glaring at him, Ron looked back and blushed. “I’m waiting to hear you say it, of course…”

“I want to come,” Ron closed his eyes and tried to ignore the steady throbbing in his groin.

 

The verbal confirmation made Severus smirk and kiss up the hot shaft, dotting little licks here and there, sucking every so often. His lover hadn’t finished during sex and that gave him the opportunity to suck him off, and Severus intended to seize the opportunity with both hands. Grabbing the erection upright, he slid his lips over the tip and shot his tongue forward to lick away the anticipatory fluid there which had somehow escaped.

 

“Oh gods suck me,” Ron begged, his legs flying up to trap Severus into position, but they were shouldered back into place immediately. “I need to come… yes… fuck…lick it…”

 

Severus did as he asked, but slowly, letting his tongue whet the tip with every drag, knowing it would infuriate Ron. The angry growl told him he was succeeding. Tied down, Ron could only lay and be licked, the energy to even thrust upward was deserting him with every precise swipe of his partner’s tongue. He had come before without being sucked at all, just being licked for what felt like hours, until he was howling for release and when it happened, he had been incoherent for half an hour.

 

 _He was punishing me then, too… this is obviously his chosen method…_ Ron whimpered as gentle lips smoothed back his foreskin and the tongue kept on licking at him, hot and tasting. That continued until Ron was mewling and writhing on the bed, his energy back as he tried everything he could to achieve his climax faster than Severus was willing to let him have it.

 

“Your impatience only makes me continue this torture longer,” Severus spoke to him in a low, gravelly voice. “Is that what you want? To lie here tied to this bed forever with me licking your cock?”

All Ron managed in reply was a strangled moan and a furious shake of his head.

“Shame,” Severus gave him another lick. “I could happily sit here and suck away the proof of your rule breaking for hours, at least…”

 

Ron shuddered at the thought of his torment lasting so long and he heard Severus’ dark laugh.

“Oh, hush, I’m not going to actually do it… We both know you’d pass out before we made it that far.”

 

He gripped more tightly with his hand and looked up at Ron’s face. “Now, will you ever try to finger me again when I’m asleep?”

“N-no,” Ron tilted his hips upward as the pressure began to hurt.

“Will you behave?”

Furiously nodding, Ron bit into his lip.

“Fine. Then prove it to me,” Severus released his grip and reached to pull off the cock ring. “You will come the second this leaves your cock, and you are not to make a sound. Am I understood?”

 

Ron’s eyes flew wide with comprehension –sometimes he just didn’t understand how Severus expected so much of him. He’d been whipped up into a state of orgasmic frenzy and all he wanted to do was bawl it out to the room as he bucked and coated his stomach with spunk, and yet he was being instructed not to.

 

Severus didn’t wait for an answer to his demand, knowing it was too much, but it would be fun to watch Ron battle his command. Of course, the older man knew he would lose, and that was the point. He eased off the ring, making sure to scrape along Ron’s shaft with his fingers. The redhead bucked, the pressure released through his cock and he choked on his first scream, trying to hold it in, but it was impossible.

  
“No, no, no fuckfuckfuckfuck,” he cried, shuddering violently, legs twitching. “No. oh god stop… I can’t stop…”

“No, you really can’t, can you?” Severus smirked, watching as his partner dirtied himself.

 

With a final, throat ripping grunt, Ron collapsed sated into the bed, panting. The come was heavy and hot on his skin and he felt so spent he didn’t even have time to recognise his failure. The next thing he felt was Severus lapping gently at his cock, cleaning it of his semen.

“Oh god stop,” he begged, arms beginning to ache as the rest of his body relaxed.

 

Severus did as he asked, taking a mouthful with him as he leant up and kissed Ron, forcing it into his mouth with a determined drive of his tongue. Ron willingly took it –refusing never got him anything he enjoyed, and groaned again into the older man’s mouth.

 

As his hands were released, Ron rolled his wrists to get the blood flow back into his hands, but Severus was on them, messaging with light fingers, kissing them gently. Letting himself be cared for, Ron blinked hazily at the room.

“I think we could both do with a wash,” Severus dropped his hands and kissed Ron again.

“If you prop me up,” Ron gave a lazy smile through his breaths.

 

***

Freshly washed and dressed, Ron wished he didn’t already feel sleepy, but there was no way he could deny it.

“Hello?” Severus waved his hand in front of his face, trying to steal Ron’s attention back from fairy land.

“What?” Ron jumped, shaking his head.

“I do believe it’s your turn to pick up?” Severus waved his hand of cards at the space in between them on the sofa.

 

Stuck together in Bridgette’s flat, without the use of their wands, they had had to resort to all sorts to entertain themselves. Playing cards was usually the very last resort, because Severus was a hideous cheater.

“I’m sorry, my brain’s not in this tonight,” Ron dropped his cards onto the sofa and heaved a sigh. “Too tired.”

“Why? You slept for thirteen hours straight…” Severus carefully collected all the cards up in his hands.

“I wasn’t counting on being ambushed as soon as I woke up.”

 

“Well, neither was I,” Severus said pointedly. “And if you won’t learn, I’ll just continue to dish out the lesson…”

Ron grinned and yawned, not bothering to put his hand over his mouth.

 

“You did take the potion after I drank yesterday, didn’t you?” Severus flicked him a concerned glance.

“I did,” Ron shrugged. “Maybe I didn’t take enough. I experiment…”  
“What do you mean?” Severus narrowed his eyes and stopped shuffling the cards.

“I, uh… well. I can take half the mouthful of what you normally make me drink and feel fine. So I sometimes take even less than that. Maybe I took too little.”  
“And you didn’t think these experiments would be worth mentioning to me?”

 

Ron shrugged apologetically but didn’t say anything, looking past Severus out at the dark sky.

“I know you hate this,” Severus said softly, taking in his longing eyes. “But we go out and prance around the city… it’s just asking to be caught, I think…”  
“I know…” Ron sighed. “And we’re going out tomorrow anyway… I just get so tired of being inside.”

“You seem to thrive on fresh air.”

 

Falling silent Ron shrunk back into the plump cushions of the sofa, feeling adrift.

 

“Do you ever wish you had acted differently?” Severus asked him, dropping the pack of cards down onto the coffee table and leaning back, playing absentmindedly with the cuff of his sleeve.

 

They had safely managed to survive in Paris for a whole month but neither of them was able to shake the way they jumped when Bridgette knocked on the door to their flat, or the way they shuddered when there were loud bangs in the street outside.

 

“No,” Ron murmured quietly. “Whatever I feel now is preferable to feeling nothing at all.”

 

Severus looked at him, withdrawn and quiet, and sighed. “Come here,” he asked, motioning to his side.

 

Surprised at the invitation for a snuggle out of their bed, Ron scooted across instantly, settling himself against Severus’ body, sapping all his warmth.

“I wish there was a better way for us to hide,” Ron murmured, closing his eyes.

“I wish for that too,” Severus told him dryly. “It is just a further sting in the Ministry’s tail that they placed restrictions on who exactly can partake in a Fidelius Charm.”

“Vampires can’t?” Ron’s eyes re-opened with surprise.

“No, neither can werewolves or banshees… not that anybody in their right mind would entrust a secret to a banshee, of course, but you know what I mean… the whole motley crew of wizarding villains –prevented from taking part in certain spells.”

“So what would happen?”

“We are cursed, the magic simply fails,” Severus said in a dead voice. “And if someone found you trying it…”

 

Ron sighed and hummed a depressed response. “I’ve been wondering… don’t get mad with me for talking about this. I still don’t want it, just so you know… but if you were to change me now, and I were to become a vampire, and then we were found, what would happen?”

“I imagine I’d be forced into custody,” Severus said quietly, reaching up to stroke Ron’s hair. “I don’t know what would happen to you… if they still believed I had forced you, you’d probably be released to your family and closely monitored.”

“They’d _just_ imprison you?” Ron asked pointedly.

“That would all depend on if the abduction report had been filed. If it had not… probably just imprisonment. But if it had… I honestly do not know what the outcome would be.”

 

Ron shivered involuntarily. “Bunch of fucking bastards.”

“They just think they’re doing best by their kind,” Severus responded in a dead tone.

“But what about your kind?” Ron protested heatedly.

“We are superfluous,” Severus swallowed.

 

“Not to me,” Ron muttered contemptuously and got to his feet, walking to the window.

“You are not the first to love an immortal,” Severus called to him. “And you will not be the last. But you cannot change our status in the world.”  
“I’m not bloody Hermione,” Ron spun round and gaped at him. “I don’t profess to be some ‘saving the world’ hero.”  
“No, that position in your little trio was already filled, that fact slipped my mind,” Severus gave a disdainful scoff and looked at the coffee table.

 

Ron fell silent and turned back to the view, trying to ignore the slight on his best friend.

 

 _Is he your best friend any more? Really?_ Ron batted the thought away and followed a drunk meandering down the road far below with glassy eyes.

 

“I just don’t know how much longer we’ll be able to sustainably live here,” Severus spoke, pushing on with the theme of uncomfortable subjects.

 

They both had differing views of what they should do if they were discovered. It wasn’t helped by the fact that each of them seemed to change their mind every time they discussed it; as soon as one came round to the other’s way of thinking, it was changed and they were back to square one, convincing each other of arguments they wouldn’t even believe themselves the next day.

 

“I say we fight,” Ron wiped a smudge off the glass. “They won’t change their minds about what they want to do to me, not now this case is high profile and it looks like the Ministry is allowing vampires to run off with society’s dear young ones.”

“And I’m still attached to the idea of bartering,” Severus leant forward and rested his elbows on his knees, propping his chin up on his left hand. “I think if we threatened to send everything public, the way that you were under threat of force… they might be willing to negotiate with us.”

“They’re too slap-happy,” Ron shook his head negatively. “They want to be in control. Everything since the end of the war has been so bloody tight their arses are squeaking. They want us all in nice neat little boxes so their perfect, quiet lives aren’t ruined… and if we challenge that they’ll only come down harder.”

 

Ron turned and smoothed his fingers over his mouth, looking down at Severus’ dejected form on the sofa.

“It’s foolish to hope that we will never be discovered,” Severus said finally.  
“Well then why don’t we just go home now and give ourselves up?” Ron threw his hands up in frustration. “That’s no different to waiting for them to find us, really, is it? We’d try to bargain, they’d say no… the only difference is if we stay here and keep fighting we get more time together.”

“If that is what you want you know I will stay with you,” Severus shrugged.

 

Groaning slightly, Ron dragged his fingers back through his hair. “We have to keep fighting,” he said decisively, a surge of adrenalin pumping through his body. “This is fucking ridiculous, Sev! I’m an adult, in love with another adult. When did that become a fucking crime?” He gestured between two invisible points.

 

His words reverberated around the flat and he didn’t give them another thought other than how angry he was about the whole situation. However, Severus’ head snapped up and assessed him with shocked eyes.

 

“What?” Ron frowned, irritated at the close inspection.

 

Severus just looked at him with slightly raised eyebrows.

  
“What’s the matter with you?” Ron grumped.

“Do you have any idea what you just said?” Severus breathed.

 

Ron thought back over his words. “That this whole thing is ridiculous?”

“You...” Severus cleared his throat and got to his feet. “You said something about being an adult in love with another adult.”

 

Heat flushed Ron’s face with embarrassment. The words had come out so flippantly he didn’t even remember speaking them, and yet he had. And he was amazed by the shocked look which took over Severus’ face, the way pale skin blanched paler and dark eyes grew emotive.

 

“I…” Ron wasn’t quite sure what to say. He had known that his feelings for Severus had come on leaps and bounds in the last month, but had never considered them anywhere close to love. _But then what the fuck would you know about love? You’ve never experienced it outside of your family…_

 

Severus was still staring at him and hadn’t moved since he’d stood up and Ron wondered if he’d turned to stone. He moved a little closer and swallowed. “Sev, I-”

“Do you mean that?” Severus asked in a husky voice.

“I’m not… I didn’t… I just said it…” Ron tried wildly, his face burning red. “I feel for you and I… Godric, Severus, I don’t know… it just sort of…”  
“Slipped out,” Severus nodded at him, and turned to the kitchen.

 

With the impression he’d fallen at a surprise hurdle, Ron quickly thought on what to do to remedy the situation.

 

_People say things they don’t mean all the time… that’s how mistakes happen, how families fall apart and how friends fight._

 

Ron watched Severus wander aimlessly around the large open kitchen.

 

_But then saying I love you and not meaning it is just… cruel. Why would I have said that if I didn’t mean it?_

 

“You don’t have to explain yourself,” Severus said shortly. “I understand. In the heat of the moment, passions run freely and your mouth gets the better of you.”

“No, Severus, look-”

 

“Implications of love should never be made unless they are meant,” Severus looked at him with cold eyes, though Ron could never have called them unfeeling in a million years –they were anything but.

 

Inside, Severus was a torrent of emotion, stirred up by the hope he hadn’t known that he had cleaved to being sliced in half by Ron’s hesitation. He did not blame him, either; on the run at eighteen was enough to contend with, let alone falling in love.

 

 _And yet, if I do not blame him, why on earth does this hurt so much?_ Severus blinked away the mawkish question and opened his mouth again. “You needn’t bother to try and find a way to spare my feelings. People in relationships hurt one another.”

“Hang on,” Ron breathed. “Why on earth are you… do you want me to say it?”  
“Only attention seekers wish to hear such a thing when the words are empty and I assure you I am not so desperate,” Severus shrugged.

“Well then do you feel that way about me, is that why you look so… lost?”  
“No,” Severus shook his head vehemently.

 

“Why not?” Ron asked, slightly stung at the defiant and instant answer.

“Now do you understand my reaction?” Severus leant back on the kitchen worktop.

“And what, Severus, what if I know that I love you? That saying it aloud had made me realise the fact?”

“Then I’d say you were lying to try and please me. I warn you now; your lies will do nothing but drive us further apart.”

“You can’t accuse me of lying when I didn’t even know what I was saying!” Ron sprang forward, brow furrowed in frustration. “You can’t tell me what I do or don’t mean! Christ, even speech isn’t fucking free anymore, even with the person you bloody love!”

 

Severus gaped at him and Ron flushed redder than before. “I just did it again, didn’t I?”  
“Yes,” Severus spat.

“You don’t believe me,” Ron squared his shoulders.

“Not particularly,” Severus tried to sound nonchalant but his passionate being, the one he was born with that had been acerbated by the monogamous loyalty born to him with his change, caused hurt to blossom through his voice and a sad hope showed in Severus’ face which made Ron cringe inside to have provoked.

 

“It is good you have not said it properly,” Severus swallowed finally. “There are… well. You’ve read the books on my kind enough times to know that when you speak those three words you do more than express your love.”  
“You feel it,” Ron breathed, remembering.

“Quite,” Severus gave a stiff nod. “So I’d be grateful if you could guard your tongue more closely.”  


Something incontrollable had begun burning within Ron’s stomach, and he was fairly sure his mouth was about to get him into gargantuan trouble. He walked simply across the tiled kitchen floor and stopped in front of the black-clad man before him. He reached forward and took up his hands and gripped them tightly. Severus watched him with wary eyes which flicked everywhere, over Ron’s face, assessing his body language and finally settling on his lips.

 

Ron edged closer and trapped their joint hands between them. _Trouble be shot down to hell. The fuzz could turn up tomorrow and I might never get the chance to say this to anybody. Of course I fucking love him. He’s all I’ve got and without him I’d be so lost._

“I love you,” he whispered directly into Severus’ ear, pressing a kiss as his quiet words were met with total silence.

 

Severus closed his eyes as a blanket of warmth fell over him, just as though someone had thrown it over him tenderly to keep him warm as he slept on a cold night. He felt Ron’s closeness and felt his hot breath tickling his neck. Without really knowing he’d moved, Severus encircled Ron with his arms and held him tight. Ron looked into his face and watched with fascination at just how peaceful the mature face suddenly appeared. The frown lines in his forehead, the sharp set of his mouth and chin all seemed to relax like Severus was enjoying a very pleasant sleep. Feeling his chest, Ron discerned a steady and slow rhythm of breath.

“I always thought they exaggerated this feeling,” Severus spoke softly. “It is simply… beautiful.”

 

Ron smiled and reached up to tuck some dark hair behind Severus’ ear, his blue eyes never leaving the happy face before him. He kissed Severus softly and nearly melted at the contented sigh which escaped from the older man, even though only moments before he had looked anything but joyful.

 

“I can’t even be angry at you,” Severus fought to stay afloat in the sea of warmth carrying his body away. “I can’t even rebuke you for doing this… not when it feels so…”  
“I know,” Ron whispered. “Just enjoy it, Severus… it’ll never feel the same way as the first time again, I remember what the books said… just… you deserve to enjoy this…” he smoothed his hands up to massage gently at Severus’ shoulders and kissed him again.

 

Severus wasn’t sure about deserving, but even his self-deprecation seemed to have deserted him as his heart thumped with seemingly new purpose. Only one thought floated through his conscious which was not related to how miraculous he felt.

 

_Does he expect me to say it in return?_

 

He felt a gentle kiss on his lips and returned that instead. Severus had never told anybody he romantically loved them in thirty-nine years and he would not allow himself to do so merely in casual response to someone else. He would say it when he meant it.

 

And Ron knew that, strangely, as though he could read the dark one’s mind. _And it’s probably better that I went first. I can wait for him to be ready..._

 

Still, Ron couldn’t help but envy the state of pure happiness splashed across Severus’ usually dour face.

 

***

“Bonsoir, Claude!” Ron called as he jogged up the steps to their flat, carrier bags of food shopping weighing him down.

“Bonsoir Monsieur,” the ghost smiled at him as he passed, and Ron felt her ghostly eyes watch him until she could no longer see him.

 

He set the bags down and reached for his key, but there was no need –no sooner than his fingers had scraped against the denim of his jeans did the door swing open and Severus looked at him and the carrier bags on the floor.

“Hey!” Ron beamed, leaning forward and giving him a fleeting kiss. “You’re up; I didn’t expect to see you for a few hours because it was sunny today.”

 

Ron bent down to pick up the bags again, thinking on how odd it was to live his life around the sun’s daily cycles when he didn’t have to. But then, for Severus, he knew he would probably do anything asked of him. _Anything except going home…_

Humming his cheeriness, he stepped into their living room and set the bags down on a counter in the kitchen. He immediately began packing items away, tapping his fingers against the wood of the cupboards and the door of the fridge.

“You’re in a good mood,” Severus’ voice was quiet when he spoke again, much nearer to Ron than he had first realised.

“Well it was a nice day, I got a bit of sunshine,” Ron shrugged, stretching up to put something on the top shelf. “And I got some really cheap food and saw someone get proposed to next to a fountain at Place de la Concorde. She said yes. It makes for a happy me. Or it did until she dropped her ring in the fountain and had to get in to find it. But she was wearing a white shirt and of course it’s February and I’m telling you this bird’s nipples could have cut glass-”

 

“Ron…” Severus spoke up and interrupted him but lost his nerve.

“What, you’re being awfully quiet –not one comment on over the top displays of affection,” Ron turned to him. “What’s the matter with you?”

 

“Something came,” Severus pointed shakily to the coffee table. “But you can’t…”

 

Ron had already sprung forward to look at it. There on the coffee table was a letter addressed to him, still sealed in an envelope. The address was written in a hand he had known since he was tiny.

 

“That’s… it’s from my Dad,” he swallowed, and immediately took a step forwards.

“Don’t,” Severus reached for him and latched his fingers around Ron’s upper arm. “It could have anything on it. It could have tracing spells.”

 

“How did it… how did it come?” Ron frowned in confusion, and turned to him.

 

A guilty, almost sickened look came over Severus’ face. “By owl.”

Ron’s mind kicked into overdrive at what that would mean –an owl would either be instructed to wait for a reply, or to return instantly to its owner. If it had come from his family…

 

“What did it look like?” Ron breathed, his fingers beginning to shake.

“Tiny, little rat of a thing…” Severus still looked guilty and knew it.

“Pig,” Ron smiled slightly, looking back to the letter. “But what… where is he? Did he fly off?”

“Not exactly,” Severus swallowed, and stepped away, folding his arms over his chest and raising his hand to cover his mouth.

 

Only then did Ron assess the situation and think of the precautions that Severus might have taken to ensure their safety. “Oh my… what did you do?” He asked finally in a sullen tone.

“What would you have done?” Severus asked him desperately. “I am no fan of committing murder, Ron, human or otherwise… but it could have given everything away…”  
“He has a name,” Ron proclaimed tremulously, thinking of his poor little innocent owl. “What did you do?”

“Do you really want to know?” Severus looked ill.

“He’s my pet, I deserve to know how you killed him,” Ron growled, flushing an ugly red colour.

“Fine,” Severus shrugged and dropped his arms. “I grabbed him, stuffed him in a bag and…” he paused and shuddered, remembering the sounds of the dying bird.

“Enough,” Ron swallowed hard, though it did not take away the burning feeling ripping up his throat.

 

“Well, you asked,” Severus turned to look out of the window, observing the fading sky.

“So what do I do about the letter?” Ron forced himself to ask. “If I open it, I’m assuming it could place all manner of markers on us?”

“You would be correct,” Severus did not turn round.

“Could we use magic to reveal what spells are on it?”

“We agreed not to use our wands…” Severus gave a heavy sigh.

 

He half expected Ron to argue to be able to see what his family had written to him, whether they were willing to forgive him for running away, and Severus was surprised when he did not suggest it. He looked out at the Paris landscape and willed them both the strength not to bow to the pressure and use their magic for the first time in over a month. There was a loud clang behind him and he jumped.

 

“What are you doing?” he asked Ron, seeing him placing a metal bin next to the table.

“What needs to be done,” Ron said stonily, carefully bending down and nudging the letter off the table with the cooking tongs he’d picked up from the kitchen and letting it drop into the bin.

 

Severus watched as his defiant redhead struck a match and placed it into the receptacle, quickly withdrawing his hand so that he did not catch himself on fire. Then Ron simply stood and watched.

 

 _I wish I knew what I was sending up in flames._ The thought was on repeat in Ron’s head and he stuffed his trembling hands in his pockets as smoke began to rise from the bin and the faint orange glow reflected on the sides. Whatever his father had placed on the letter, he certainly hadn’t factored in fire, because the letter instantly caught and began curling and blackening whilst flames danced along the edges of the envelope.

 

“What did you do with Pig?” Ron asked.

Guilty once more, Severus gulped slightly before answering. “I… uh…”

 

A breeze caught Ron’s face then and he turned and saw one of the smaller windows in the room open. “You threw him back out?”

“I didn’t know what to do…” Severus protested.

“Now he hasn’t even got a proper burial,” Ron said miserably. “He’s just a dead bird in a bag somewhere. For fuck’s sake, Severus, where’s your compassion?”

“I didn’t know he was yours,” Severus moved forward with his palms up placatingly. “Ron, I really… I apologise.”

 

The letter crackled loudly as it burnt and Ron had never before hated the smell of smoke so much. Wordlessly he flopped down onto the sofa and put his face in his hands, squeezing his eyes shut. His family had made contact but he would never know what they had wanted, and of course he still wanted to know, even though it had taken them a month to bother. And his owl was dead, killed by the man he had only just professed his love to.

 

 _Pig would have risked everything we’ve worked for…_ Ron tried to justify Severus’ actions in his mind but kept coming back to the fact that the man had killed his pet and it was all for him that he was stuck in the middle of Paris living a miserable life with no normality and not another friend in the world who would care for him. _That’s not true… you and Bridgette have grown closer…_ Ron knew that would all abruptly change if he were to hurt Severus, though –it was always very clear to him that Bridgette only tolerated his presence because Severus wanted him.

 

Severus watched the scene of quiet despair in front of him and had never felt so sick with himself. The mini-bonfire raged in the tiny rubbish bin and he himself could not rid the image of the way he’d sent a dead bird sailing out of the window of an eight story building. The worst thing was that he knew his discomfort was nothing compared to what Ron must have been feeling. Forcing himself to place one foot in front of the other, Severus walked back to the sofa and sat down next to Ron. Taking a deep breath and preparing himself for rejection, he pulled the trembling form into his arms and pushed Ron’s face into his shoulder.

 

No matter how distraught he was, Ron couldn’t turn down the comfort being offered to him –not when it came from such an unlikely quarter. He threw his arms around Severus’ middle and clutched for all he was worth, not stopping to think that his grip might have hurt the older man, which it did. Wincing, Severus didn’t bother to mention it to Ron.

 

“I just wish I knew what he’d said,” Ron whispered. “I just wish I-I c-c-could know if he a-accepted… or just said that h-he…”  
“Shh,” Severus stroked the back of his hair gently. “I know. I know it’s hard.”

 

Ron fell silent, still gripping hard and keeping his face tightly screwed up pressed into the crook of Severus’ neck. He was determined that he would not cry and he was confident he could keep to his guns, but it didn’t detract from the fact that inside he really, truly hurt.

 

“I love you,” he whispered desperately so that Severus could hear him –somehow, saying the act of saying those words was a port in the storm of his emotions. “I’m sorry I was rude… you did the right thing. He… he could have given everything away.”

“Shh,” Severus whispered down to him, the forgiveness washed over him but it was eclipsed by the repetition of that sweet little phrase he had wondered if he would ever hear during the bleaker parts of his life.

“No,” Ron shook his head rebelliously and sat up properly, his face pale. “I should have expected this.”  
“Should have expected I’d be forced to brutally murder your owl?” Severus was caught off guard by Ron’s sudden turn around of gumption.

 

“No,” Ron looked at him sadly. “I should have expected that I would have to destroy any correspondence that they sent… at least until the Ministry called off the search. If they ever call it off.” His voice wavered at the end.

“He only got in because I opened the window to get some fresh air,” Severus explained, lowering his eyes to his knees. “He only would have waited outside,” Ron shrugged. “He was always very persistent if a little loopy.”  
  
“I’m sorry about your pet,” Severus reached for his hand and held it tightly.  
“Its…” Ron swallowed. “I… suppose I’ve just not had such an obvious display of what I left before now.”

 

Severus followed Ron’s eyes to the flaming bin and sighed. Ron let his hand be gripped.

 

It did not take long for the letter to burn to ashes, and with no fuel the fire quickly died to an annoying crackle. Ron stood and took it to the sink, shoving it under the tap and drenching the ashes with cold water, before tipping them away down the plughole and upending the bin on the draining board.

  
“Gone,” he said bluntly, looking at the dregs littering the stainless steel.

 

A wave of longing crashed over his head and he gripped the edge of the sink tightly, heart beating erratically as he fought off the urge to collapse under the burden of his hurt. It was not long before he felt cool hands and strong arms holding him up, rocking him slightly, and holding his body to a firm chest and warm pillar of flesh. And then there were soft words in his ear.

“You are so strong,” Severus told him. “Not many people could have managed to do something as selfless as that, Ron. Thank you.”

“It wasn’t selfless,” he muttered, confused. “If they find us I’m the one that gets doctored.”  
“But you also did it to preserve your life with me…” Severus murmured, and kissed the shell of Ron’s ear. “As you well know… And I thank you for it.”

 

Ron took a pacifying breath of air and opened his eyes again. He turned wordlessly to face Severus and held the man tightly in his arms, taking everything he could from the only source of comfort he had. One hand stroked at his hair and the other rubbed small comforting circles at the base of his spine, where his tattoo lay beneath his clothes.

“I love you,” Ron repeated pointlessly, not being able to focus on anything else to say for the meantime.

“I know you do,” Severus was once again drenched with warmth and he fought hard not to lose himself to the joy when Ron was so miserable in his arms.

 

The grandfather clock in the living room chimed out six and Ron jumped slightly.  
“I will go to the Coven in a moment and explain to Bridgette that we’ve changed our minds about tonight,” Severus told him.

“When did we do that?” Ron frowned.  
“Well, I just thought that you would like some time…” Severus explained.  
“No,” Ron pulled back and scrubbed his fingers roughly over the skin of his face. “No, Sev, I’ve been looking forward to this for days and I don’t think I could actually bear losing tonight.”

“If you are sure you can handle it?” Severus asked apprehensively.

  
Truth be told, he was not looking forward to the evening which lay ahead of them. Bridgette had been pleading with them to go out with her, Christos and their friends for the entire month and a week they had been in Paris and Severus had managed to stalwartly refuse until Ron agreed for him. They’d had an argument over the subject, shortly followed by many more, but Ron had won out when Bridgette had produced a way to mask his oh-so-delicious mortal scent.

 

“I’m deadly sure,” Ron snorted. “I’m looking forward to it, even if you’re not.”

 

Severus sighed and looked at the clock unnecessarily, considering that it had just chimed and given him the hour. “Then we had best eat. Are you absolutely sure you would like to go?”

“Sev, stop,” Ron begged softly. “I need to get out and this is the perfect chance. I can’t stay in here and know that you murdered my owl…”

“Are you going to throw that in my face all the live long night or are you merely removing it from your system now?” Severus breathed with closed eyes.

“Getting it out now,” Ron managed a soft laugh. “Bird murderer.”

 

Severus had to swallow down his sick but could not hide his full-body shudder.

 

***

“God, it’s a crime to cover up this beautiful scent,” Bridgette sighed, pointing her wand at Ron. “I just… he smells so delicious.”  
“Hence why we’re doing it babe,” Christos spoke with an easy smile. “So that half the club doesn’t end up feasting on his blood and Sev here doesn’t get ripped apart trying to defend his loverrrrr.”

 

The end of the word was a purr brought on by already having had five shots of tequila. Although it was the first time they had properly met, Ron could not help but like Christos, the dark haired Grecian Bridgette had chosen as her boyfriend. His Greek accent was long gone, as he himself was older than Bridgette at two hundred and fifty, but he still, obviously, retained his gleaming black hair, dark eyes and tanned skin. He had a smiling face and seemed more comfortable in his own skin than anybody Ron had ever had the pleasure to observe before.

 

“I know,” she whined in response. “But just… smell him, seriously, smell him.”

“I _can_ smell him, and I’d try my luck if I didn’t want to hit the floor before the words were out,” Christos shot Severus a wink. “But that scent isn’t for us, or anybody else, it’s between them so perform the spell and let’s get moving.”

 

Grumbling, Bridgette performed the spell and Ron shivered slightly as his body reacted. Suddenly presented with three vampires sniffing at him, he felt odder than he had done since leaving England.

“Okay, stop it, you’re freaking me out,” he groaned, and Christos laughed.

“You smell normal for the company you’re in,” he shook his head. “Which of course is the objective.”  
“You smell all wrong,” Severus hated how grumpy and childish that statement sounded, but it was nothing other than the truth. His Ron had been swept away with the spell and all that lingered was the generic vampire aroma he smelt from Bridgette, not being able to notice his own scent.

 

“Good,” Ron smiled. “I don’t fancy being anyone’s dinner but yours…”

“Oh, Jesus… where did you find this perfect specimen?” Christos groaned.

“Pissed locked in Hogwarts’ walls,” Ron sighed with a wink. “The perfect place to pick up hot men.”

 

Even Severus laughed and Ron possessively moved to wrap his arms around his thin waist, pressing a kiss to Severus’ cheek, grinning.

 

“Are we finally ready then?”

“I suppose we are.”

“Good, I’m dying for a Mojito here.”  
“And the award for Mr. Closet Homosexual of the Year goes to…” Bridgette rolled her eyes at her boyfriend.

“Awwwwwwh, I wanted that,” Ron griped. “Bitch!” He tacked on cattily with a grin.

 

Christos burst into laughter and dragged Ron away from Severus’ grip, throwing his arm around his shoulders, leading him out of the door to the flat, saying “Me and you are going to get on famously, kid.”

 

Bridgette gave them a grin and turned to Severus, holding out her hand. “Ready to get your eardrums melted?”

“No,” Severus muttered, but took her arm formally.

“Where are your leather trousers?” She raised an eyebrow. “Don’t tell me you left them to rot in that dingy dungeon of yours.”  
“No, I have them,” Severus sighed.

“So why aren’t they accentuating your backside perfectly like I know they can?” She pulled the flat door closed behind her.

“I did not particularly enjoy the thought of sweating profusely all night long.”  
“You’re getting old,” Bridgette teased him, nudging his ribs with her elbow.

“And, anyway,” Severus nodded ahead of them where Ron and Christos were walking. “He’s wearing them.”

“Ah, of course,” she laughed, squinting to look. “He does look fetching.”

“Fetching?” Severus muttered. “I’m having to work hard to keep my hands off him.”  
“Well, in a few minutes we’ll be in a very dark club where you won’t have to bother,” she laughed.

 

They walked in silence after that, catching up with their partners on the stairs. Severus let go of Bridgette in favour of tugging Ron to his side, and smiled with pleasure at the way the faux blonde came willingly.

 

Despite his joking mood, however, Severus was worried about Ron and his reaction to the day’s earlier events. He had been expecting some kind of contact from the man’s family but had never considered what he, or Ron, would actually do when it arrived.

 

“How do you feel?” Severus murmured across to him.  
“Fine,” Ron looked back pointedly. “Would you like me to make a sign? You’ve asked me around fifty times, Severus.”

“I am only worried,” he grumbled, looking down at the steps as they climbed, feeling the burn beginning in his thighs.

 

They were heading to one of the clubs on the second floor of the underground city which Bridgette, Christos and even Severus favoured above all of the others. Ron was adequately disguised and appropriately dressed, and there was no reason for anyone to bat him a second glance, but Severus was still afraid. Ron gave his hand a squeeze.

 

“Right, ready Blondie?” Christos called back to them and Ron shot Severus a disparaging glance at his new nickname, so given as they were back in disguise.

“I guess,” he called back.

“Stay close,” Severus warned him. “Do not disobey me…”

 

 

 

Ten minutes later, Ron was watching everything with wide eyes as he sipped at a delicious pint of cider. The club was dark and he probably should have been scared by all the dark recesses, but he felt completely safe sitting next to Severus, who seemed to have relaxed when he saw Bridgette’s spell working successfully.

 

The music being played wasn’t what he had expected –it was a healthy mix of muggle and wizarding songs, both old and new, and the dance floor was filled with writhing bodies. What Ron couldn’t stop staring at, however, was how brazen most of the vampire community seemed to be. From his seat he could see three couples indecently kissing, a man holding another man’s face to his open trousers and one couple going all out against a wall which was sporadically hit by the travelling red ceiling lights.

 

“They do not feel the need to hide how they feel,” Severus noticed him watching and whispered in Ron’s ear. “They simply act here as they would in their own homes.”  
“How are you so different to them?” Ron asked and took a sip of his drink, savouring the sweet bubbly taste.

Severus shrugged. “I suppose I would be relatively young if you took a poll of the ages in this club… many people who live here are over a hundred years old…”

“That and you’re too reserved to receive a blow job in a club?” Ron raised an eyebrow with a slight smile.  
“Ha!” Christos burst out from across the table and they both started, not having realised he was listening in. “Severus, this kid really knows nothing about your first few years as a vampire, does he?”

“And that is the way I would like it to _stay_ ,” Severus hissed through gritted teeth with a pointed glare.

 

Ron’s eyes swivelled between the two men and decided to let them glare it out, instead turning and looking for Bridgette who was leaning against the railings talking to a friend. She waved him over with the hand holding her drink and Ron instinctively got up.

“Where are you going?” Severus grabbed his hand.

“To talk to Bridgette,” Ron motioned to her.

“No you’re not, sit down, please,” Severus tugged on his limb and Ron fell back down into his seat. “What did I say about disobeying me?”  
“So I can’t leave your side for two seconds?” Ron muttered.

“No, you cannot. That spell is working now, but if it breaks and you are not by my side… I dread to think of the consequences.”

 

Ron fell silent, feeling stupid and naïve. He took a mouthful of drink and was glad when another man at the table, a friend of their hosts, engaged Severus in a conversation. Christos noticed his silence and slid around the empty chairs to talk to him.

 

“Bossy, isn’t he?” He said with a furtive glance in Severus’ direction.  
“Yeah,” Ron gave a frazzled looking confirmation.

“That’s Severus though, so uptight,” Christos shook his head and looked out into the sea of moving bodies. “I don’t think that _I_ could be in a relationship with him.”

“He’s not so bad,” Ron sighed, knowing that Severus was firmly ensconced in conversation beside him.

“You’re really head over heels, huh?”

 

Ron’s blush was visible even in the dim red club lighting and Christos grinned at him.

“We can tell. That feeling we get when someone first says those three words to us… the glow doesn’t fade for a few days, and it’s written in his skin. Bridge was going to mention it later, but she’s no need now I already know.”  
“Does he know you know?” Ron asked interestedly.

“He’d be a fool if he didn’t remember that we’d recognise the signs,” Christos stubbed out the cigarette he’d been smoking. “Now. Do you think I could tempt him to let you up for a dance?”  
“Good luck,” Ron laughed. “Talking was out a second a go, if you remember.”

 

Ron watched as Christos got up, smirking, and bent down next to Severus’ ear. He could not feel comfortable with the way the man’s hand settled so casually on his Severus’ shoulder, the way his lips were so dangerously close to the shell of the ear which was only Ron’s to kiss. Jealousy roared in his belly and Ron felt urges that he had never quite experienced before.

 

Surprisingly he felt his hand be released and Christos straightened. “Come on you, run whilst he’s loosened the clasp on your manacle,” he winked, and held out his hand to pull Ron up.

“Severus?” Ron asked him tentatively, looking between them.

“Just be careful,” Severus whispered, leaning close. “Come back to me.”

 

Ron let himself be tugged into the sea of bodies, those words buzzing in his ears. _Come back to me…_ Ron wanted to do just that and he felt an immediate push of separation anxiety as Christos grabbed him to initiate a dance.

“You should know I’m a terrible dancer,” Ron shouted over the music, snapping out of his reverie.  
“We’ll soon have you sorted,” the dark haired man laughed as the music flipped over to a muggle song. “Oh, God, Bridge’ll be up on the stage any second, she bloody loves Copacobana…”

 

 

 

From Severus’ point of view, the night was already off to a bad start. Christos had stolen Ron from him and was gyrating against his body in a way that made Severus growl continually under his breath, even if he knew there was no threat, and Bridgette was up on the tiny stage howling the words of the cheesiest song in the world into a crackling microphone. Bored, he picked up his drink and took a sip, keeping his eyes on Ron dancing in the crowd.

 

He couldn’t help but smile watching the covert redhead copying Christos’ moves and falling into rhythm with him. Whoever had decided Ron was a bad dancer had seemingly had bad eyesight, because Severus could see nothing wrong with the way those slender hips moved to the beat, the way his head moved in time and his blonde hair swirled when he moved more energetically.

 

 _I miss him._ The thought rolled into Severus and nearly knocked him out of his chair. How on earth could he miss somebody who was mere metres away?

 

“Knut for ‘em?” Bridgette adopted a cockney accent as she fell into Ron’s vacated seat, following his gaze out to where her partner and his danced together. “God, that really took it out of me. I’m getting too old for this.”  
“It wouldn’t be a night out without you singing badly,” Severus rolled his eyes.

“So come on, what’s the matter with you?” She snapped straight back to her original point. “I already know, I’m just waiting for you to tell me like the obedient charge of mine you are.”  
“He told me he loved me,” Severus confirmed for her. “But this afternoon a letter from his family arrived… and I might have murdered his pet owl without knowing.”

“You didn’t know you were killing a bird?” She gaped at him.  
“No, I knew that part but I didn’t know it was his… I did not even know he had an owl…” Severus trailed off, looking into his drink. “And that unnerves me. I know so little about him, and him about me, and yet he tells me he loves me, and it can’t be the truth…”  
“Why on earth not?” Bridgette frowned. “Severus, please listen to me here, as a friend. You have been alone for a very long time. Every effort we’ve made to set you up with men, women, whomever we can bloody find –they all go down the toilet. You’ve never looked at any of them the way you look at him.”

“You’ve certainly changed your tune,” Severus assessed her with narrowed eyes, thinking back to when he had first told her of his relationship with Ron at Christmas.

 

She gave a demure sniff and took a mouthful of cocktail. “Well, I am able, unlike you, to hold up my hand and admit when I am wrong, Severus. If he has said he loves you, then I am inclined to agree with him, no matter what circumstances might have instigated those words. You are his companion, friend and lover. What’s not to love, Severus, even if you insist you are not the loving kind?”

“The fact that it is me,” Severus shrugged simply, and downed the rest of his drink.

“Well, yes, it is you, and you’re a moody, sarcastic bastard who really needs to cheer up a lot of the time. But I’ve grown to appreciate you, and so has Ron. You are not as unlovable as you would like to think you are.”

“I do _not_ like to think I’m unlovable,” Severus grumbled, knowing, even as he denied it, that it was the truth.

 

His hostile nature had been something to hide behind for many years, a wonderful excuse as to why his relationships always failed and of course, he had a well-thumbed book of justifications on which to blame his bitterness. His abusive childhood, his miserable school experience, and his change at the hands of the Dark Lord… but anyone who knew him well enough could see through them. Dumbledore always had, and Bridgette had learned to, and Ron was seemingly breaking through his defences as well. It was an odd feeling, to know that someone was finally cracking through his hard shell with the intent to love what was within it.

 

That alone was enough to make Severus love him back, even if he did not want to acknowledge such a fact.

 

“Did you tell him you loved him?” Bridgette asked interestedly, crossing her legs and causing several people to stare at the delicious picture she painted.

“No,” Severus said softly, and it was almost drowned out by the music.  
“How did he take that?”

“Surprisingly well,” Severus looked uncomfortably at her. “I don’t know whether he was hiding his disappointment or genuinely did not feel any.”  
“Why don’t you try asking?” She sighed exasperatedly.

“I cannot,” Severus got to his feet and looked over at the bar. He was going to need several stiff drinks if he was going to have to watch Ron be paraded beneath his nose, wiggling his hips indecently in Severus’ own leather trousers.

 

Suddenly feeling nauseous, he took in a deep gulp of air and found it unsatisfactory due to the smoky nature of the club. “I’m going to get some fresh air,” he told her, and turned instantly, weaving his way through the dancing, laughing and drinking vampires, heading for the entrance so he could gain some grounding in the coolly spelled corridors of the Coven.

 

***

Ron laughed as he swung back in to face Christos, who was grinning madly at him.

“The spell’s working well,” he commented in Ron’s ear. “You smell so boring now.”  
“Remind me to get her to remove it later or Severus’ll never touch me again,” Ron snorted, dodging out of the way as a couple stumbled past them, kissing frantically.  
“Oh, someone’s about to get lucky,” Christos laughed, watching them collide with the banisters leading to the upper level where they had been seated. “You had enough yet; fancy a sit down and a drink?”

 

Ron thought about it. His body ached in a good way and he felt so free amongst the heaving bodies on the dance floor, but he wasn’t used to all the high-energy dancing, especially not after his month of relative solitude holed up with Severus. “Sure,” he nodded finally.

“Hold on tight, he’ll rip my head off if I lose you,” Christos winked salubriously and grabbed Ron’s hand, leading him up the stairs to the seating level and looking around for their table.

“It was that one there,” Ron whispered, pointing to the rounded table which was startlingly empty.

 

When Ron looked back at what happened next, he wouldn’t be able to pinpoint what exactly triggered the anxiety in his chest. Whether it was coming face to face with the obviously devoid table, or realising that Severus was not there, or realising that he was alone in the middle of a vampire nightclub, he would never be sure. But as all of those facts sunk in, the prickling anxiety turned into full blown panic and he gasped a gasp that nobody was able to hear through the music.

 

He let go of Christos’ hand and blinked stupidly around him, suddenly very aware of the oppressive heat bearing down on him from all sides and the leather trousers he wore seemed two times too small; they stuck to the sweat of his legs. His dance partner turned to talk to someone else and Ron instinctively lurched away, looking blindly around to see if he could spot Severus in the crowds, but he came up trumps –he couldn’t even locate Bridgette.

 

_Oh God… he’s gone and left me here… in the middle of… oh fuck… this is because I said I loved him…_

 

The irrational fear flowed through him, straight to his brain and provided such a convincing strain of argument he believed it in seconds. Devastating horror crashed around him as he wondered how on earth he would escape without Severus’ protection, how on earth he would manage to function without the beautiful man who had taught him so much, taught him to feel and how to love, how to have sex and how to make rice without overcooking it.

 

_No, Severus, please…_

 

Who he was pleading with, Ron wasn’t exactly sure. It wasn’t as though Severus could pick up on his desperate thoughts. Forcing his legs to work, Ron moved away from their empty table to where he thought the entrance was, not noticing how heads turned his way, how eyes followed his attractive blonde form as he wandered through the vampires with an utterly lost look upon his face. He reached the door and the security figure allowed him to pass, staring curiously into his face just like everyone else had.

 

Ron didn’t particularly realise he was walking into the unknown, that he was walking into a maze of underground tunnels and away from the two people that would have kept him safe. With a jolt of his stomach he realised there was only one person that he wanted to keep him safe, and that was Severus.

 

The air of the hallway was cool on his skin and he slumped against the wall, looking dazedly at a couple rutting against one another decadently a few metres away. They were too wrapped up in one another to take any notice of him but Ron remembered Severus’ advice and quickly averted his eyes.

 

 _Maybe he went down to Bridgette’s flat?_ The little ray of hope surged within Ron and he turned and hurried down the corridor heading for the stairwell which would lead him down to the domestic residential levels of the coven. He did not realise that his panic attack had caused the spell masking his scent to weaken, or see the rutting couples’ heads follow him as he passed.

 

***

Severus was drifting aimlessly through the corridors of the coven, his hands shoved glumly and uncouthly into the pockets of his trousers. His thoughts were on Ron, on his delicious little Fire Imp, and how he might be faring amidst the crowd of vampires somewhere above him.

 

There was nowhere he could not walk within the underground warren and he felt the need to walk his legs long and hard that night, to try and regain some sense of control over his emotions. Talking to Bridgette had made him realise something she had already told him before.

 

 _She said I would love him eventually and hinted there was little point in me holding off…_ Severus turned a corner and entered the stairwell heading downwards. _But she isn’t me. She doesn’t know how bloody hard it is for me to just trust, let alone love._

 

He did trust Ron, he knew. There was surprising strength in that wiry body which he had not anticipated, and emotion unsurpassed by anything he had seen before. Severus knew there were not many men who could burn a letter from those whom he longed to hear of, merely to protect the life he had begun to live clandestinely.

 

 _I am not sure that I could have done something such as that…_ Severus swallowed and shook his hair back out of his eyes. _And that he does all this for me makes me trust him._

 

He stepped off the stairs and realised he was close to Bridgette’s flat. She would not mind if he retired there for a while and took advantage of her whiskey collection.

 

However, as soon as he stepped onto the residential floor all thoughts of a fine malt flew from his mind as his body began to prickle with the sensation of danger. And then a scent met his nose –a scent which should have been five floors above and heavily masked.

 

His vampiric instincts took over and his eyes flew wide.

 

***

“You’re a very pretty human, aren’t you?” The female drawled, bringing her hand up to hold Ron’s chin as her partner held him to the wall.

 

Ron was, to all intents and purposes, frozen. There was a thigh in between his legs and teeth nipping at his earlobe.

  
“What foolish person would leave a treat as delicious as you wandering these dangerous halls alone?” the man breathed at him. “They must not care for you at all… we would care for you…”

“We would teach you pleasure you’ve never dreamt of,” the female smiled dirtily and slid her hand down to grope at his crotch. “And more.”

“Imagine the thought of two vampires drinking from you at once,” the male spoke, causing Ron to shudder at the threat in his tone. “Imagine how good that would feel, how hard you’d be… come back to our room with us and we’ll give you whatever you want… in return for what we want.”

 

The female chuckled and made to add something to that, but was cut off by the sound of footsteps. Ron nearly cried out in relief when he saw who had come to his rescue, though the look on Severus’ face was almost enough to still his pounding heart.

 

“Back off,” Severus hissed. “He is mine.”  
“Then you should not be so ridiculous as to leave your property wandering the halls so early in the morning,” the man growled.

“I wasn’t aware this was a school playground,” Severus spat. “Or that we were embroiled in a petty game…”  
“Finders keepers,” the man smirked, but Ron noticed how he stepped away. “Come on, Marian… the brat has this fool’s scent all over him. It’s clear he’s been claimed.”  
“Shame, I should have liked to have seen him unravel for us,” she purred, looped her arm around the man’s waist, and they stalked away.

 

Severus kept his wand pointing at their backs but Ron couldn’t hold back the torrent of emotions –he launched himself at Severus and sent him crashing into the corridor wall, luckily just missing the door of a resident, stealing Severus’ attention away from the vampires who had latched onto his partner.

“Oh gods,” Ron choked, burying his face into Severus’ shoulder and clutching wildly at him.

“Did they hurt you?” Severus frowned at Ron’s dramatic reaction –he knew that Ron would have been scared, but not enough to provoke the fingernails almost ripping through his shirt.

“I thought you had left me,” Ron breathed, face burning red. “I thought you’d fucked off and left me alone here to die…”

“What?” Severus blinked, and turned, pressing Ron into the wall to gain a better look at his face.

 

Desperate hazel eyes met black and Ron trembled beneath his hands.

 

“I just needed some air,” Severus breathed. “You looked so happy with Christos I… I didn’t give a thought to what my leaving would look like…”

“Don’t,” Ron begged desperately.

“Don’t what?” Severus was beginning to grow dizzy with his confusion and the tightness of Ron’s arms.

“Don’t leave me,” Ron whispered, and seized the front of Severus’ shirt, dragging him into a messy wet kiss which he quickly broke and begged Severus again with his eyes.

  
“I won’t,” Severus assured him with a quick kiss to his brow.

“I love you,” Ron breathed. “I know you don’t believe me, Severus but… this is _not_ me,” he gasped. “I don’t… I’m so unlike myself that I know something pretty big has to be going on for me to bow to it.”

 

Severus stroked back the odd blonde hair from Ron’s face and swallowed. “I know,” he whispered, his lips barely moving around the words. “I know that you love me.”

 

Hearing those words were almost as good as hearing his proclamation in return and Ron visibly sagged against the wall, his eyes fluttering shut.

 

He nearly passed out when Severus a pressed another warm kiss to his brow and said, very quietly, but undoubtedly clearly, “I love you.”

 

Ron’s eyes flew open and he looked deep within the onyx pools focused on him, searching for any hint of a lie or a trick, but there was none to find.

 

Severus wanted to curse at his own inability to control himself around the young man in his arms and was well aware of the colour rising in his face as Ron scrutinised him.

“Do you mean that?”

 

Severus could only manage a curt nod. Now it had been said he wasn’t going to pad it out with flowery declarations and he was certain Ron was not stupid enough to ask for them. When the blonde smiled at him tentatively, Severus knew he was right.

 

“I want to go home,” Ron breathed suddenly.

“W-what? You mean back to…?”

“No, I mean the flat,” Ron clarified. “ _Our_ home.”

“You think of it as our home?” Severus asked him, hardly believing what he was hearing.

 

“Don’t make me say a load of sentimental bullshit you’ll never forgive me for, or even believe,” Ron pleaded. “Just take me home, look like you, Severus, and tell me you love me again.”

“As long as you do the same,” Severus whispered and kissed him gently.


	13. Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien

Severus stretched out with a feline-like purr and turned his head on the pillow to look out at the darkening spring sky. The bed was warm and comfortable and he completely naked, Ron was beside him in the same glorious natural state.

 

Looking back to the dozing redhead, Severus reached up and rested his hands behind his head, sinking his fingers into his own inky black hair and scratching. He groaned again.

 

“What?” Ron muttered sleepily.

“Nothing,” Severus whispered. “Go back to sleep.”

“Not if you’re going to keep waking me up with your best bloody cat impressions,” Ron raised his head and blinked blearily at Severus with a lopsided smile.

 

Severus rolled his eyes and looked up at the ceiling, not surprised when he felt Ron shift into his side. Feeling totally relaxed and at peace with the world, Ron pressed a kiss into the curling black fuzz in Severus’ exposed armpit.

“Time?” he yawned.

“Around half past seven, I’d guess.”  
“I love having you around, who needs a watch when you’ve got your own personal sundial?”

 

“I’m delighted you’ve found such a beneficial use for my presence,” Severus told him wryly, his snark waking up along with his brain.

 

Ron smiled and reached up to kiss him, smoothing one hand over his naked chest beneath the sheets. “You know I have plenty of other beneficial uses for you…” He let the hand slide down over the trim stomach and let his fingers entwine into the wiry curls providing a pillow for a rather prominent morning erection. “Lots of uses, in fact…”

 

Severus gave a derisive snort and kissed Ron again, enjoying the feel of fingernails raking across his pubic mound. His spine shivered with pleasure.

 

“Four months and you still nearly lose it when I touch you,” Ron whispered, looking at Severus as he bent his head to place a kiss on his stretched up arm. “I like that.”

“Has it really been so long?” Severus raised his eyebrows in surprise.

 

After the first month had passed without trouble, they had settled down into a life and routine which neither could call unpleasant. They were lonely, and isolated, but living with each other became so much easier than they ever could have imagined that they did not notice their solitude as much as they should have. Ron knew not to expect decent conversation near the time the dawn broke, or to allow Severus near alcohol when he was tired, and Severus in turn knew that Ron needed to be woken up gently or a bad mood ensued for the rest of the day and that onions made him ill.

 

“Yeah, yesterday,” Ron breathed softly, raising his index finger to stroke part of the meaty erection still waiting for attention.

“Time has moved on fast,” Severus gave him a small smile. “For me, anyway.”  
“And me,” Ron assured him with another kiss. “If I’d known life would be as easy as bumming around a flat in Paris living a charmed existence I’d never have bothered going back to school in the first place.”

 

Ron ducked as Severus swiped for the side of his head and laughed. He saw his opportunity and disappeared beneath the sheets, kissing his way down the pale ribcage, shifting over to dip his tongue in Severus’ navel, then settling in between his legs.

“It’s not like you aren’t earning your keep,” Severus’ low voice travelled perfectly through the sheets and Ron laughed, causing hot tendrils of breath to curl around the cock in front of him, which twitched excitedly.

 

Quickly growing hot beneath the bedcovers, Ron immediately slid Severus halfway into his mouth before dragging back off again to lick at the tip. Four months had told him exactly how Severus liked to receive blow jobs and it was with his advanced knowledge that Ron deftly had the man groaning in mere minutes. He felt hands pressing onto his head through the bed covers and grinned around his mouthful of cock, sucking a little harder to reward his vampire for his precaution. In his hand he was gently rolling a heated pair of balls and gave them a tug when he tasted pre-come on his tongue.

“Oh so that’s how you’re operating today?” Severus’ hiss was louder than usual.

 

Ron licked and tugged again as a very obvious answer and the resultant growl made him burn with his own want, but he ignored it as he continued to make dinner of his lover. Hands still pressed onto his head and his breathing was ragged from the humidity in the tented space and when Severus’ thighs trembled in a tell-tale sign of approaching climax, Ron was glad. His fringe was stuck to his forehead and his lips were stinging with overuse.

 

Above the sheets, Severus hardly looked any more dignified. His hands were firm on Ron’s head and his teeth were clenched in a tilted back head as his redheaded assailant licked, sucked and nipped him towards an evening orgasm which would be a perfect start to his day.

 

“Ffffuuuuck,” Severus growled loudly, jerking as he tightened and spilled into Ron’s wanting mouth. “Take it all down, slut.”

 

Ron groaned at the insult and swallowed diligently, licking away every last morsel of come that pumped out of the older man. It was a taste he’d come to love as much as the man it came from, though he’d never admitted that to Severus –he’d always had the feeling he’d be laughed at for doing so.

 

Cleaning up the leftover mess, Ron lingered beneath the bed sheets a while longer, kissing where he felt like before flopping over onto his back and reaching for his own straining cock.

 

Severus saw him through the sheets and cruelly ripped them off so the cool air of the room assaulted the hot nineteen-year-old.

“What are you doing?”  
“Nothing,” Ron smiled serenely with his eyes closed.

 

Severus was kneeling over him on all fours in seconds and murmured, “Well that doesn’t particularly look like ‘nothing’…”

“I’m not even allowed to touch myself any more?” Ron raised an eyebrow and opened his eyes.

“Only when I am otherwise engaged,” Severus told him in a whisper, before he engaged Ron in a kiss.

“I don’t think I like that rule,” Ron shook his head with an apologetic hissing grimace.

“Tough,” Severus smirked, tracing one finger around a nipple. “I make the rules, remember, Mr. Weasley?”  
“Oh, I’ve not heard that for a while,” Ron scoffed with a laugh. “You think you’re so bloody intimidating…”

“Am I not?” Severus drawled.

“Absolutely not,” Ron giggled. “Not for a long time. I love you too much to be intimidated by you…”

“Then I think we’ll have to change that,” Severus dropped and latched his mouth around the nipple instead, biting down into the puckered flesh with fair pressure, making Ron gasp. “Yes… a little bit of pain always makes you think differently,” Severus lapped at it a few times when he had broken off the reddened nub. “You must remember that you are still my submissive, even though we love one another…”

 

“And what do you plan on doing to make sure the message is firmly cemented in my brain?” Ron asked as Severus licked a trail down his abdomen.

“Sadly for you, nothing at this moment,” Severus smirked. “As you have plans in roughly half an hour.”  
“I’ll cancel,” Ron muttered instantly. “I don’t need to go…”

“You made plans and you will not cancel them merely to receive sexual gratification.”

 

“Seeeev,” Ron whined, before he remembered that whining would only cement his fate further. “I don’t want to go; I want to stay here with you…”

“And do what, hmm?” Severus teased him, gently tracing his nose over the form of Ron’s.

“Fuck,” Ron pleaded with his eyes.

“As tempting as you are,” Severus kissed his lips gently, “And as much as I would like nothing better than to flip you over, drench your back with kisses and plunge into your backside, Bridge hates being stood up. So. You will go. I will be here when you get back. We have all the time in the world to fuck one another senseless…”

 

“I look forward to it,” Ron smiled up at him, bringing his hands up to sink into Severus’ sleep-tousled hair.

Groaning at the touch, Severus returned his smile and hummed with contentment. “I need coffee. And food.”

“Get off me then and I’ll make you breakfast,” Ron rolled his eyes.

“That was not a hint,” Severus got up off him anyway, reaching for the bath robe draped precariously over the end of the bed, where he’d left it the night before.

 

Ron smiled as he watched the thin man slip into the silk and sat up, eyes sweeping up the slender form which had, he was pleased to note, filled out slightly since they had arrived in Paris. Severus looked healthier in every sense, his skin had a glow to it, his hair was thicker and shinier and he just looked, in Ron’s eyes, the image of perfection.

 

“Stop it,” Severus chastised him feeling ever uncomfortable under Ron’s adoring gaze, and pulled the belt of the robe shut. “And put some bloody clothes on, whore.”

 

Ron gave a tut and heaved himself off the bed, reaching for his clothes as Severus left he bedroom. Outside their window the city was bustling in the dying embers of sunlight and Ron was quite glad he had an excuse to take a walk.

 

When he was dressed, minus outerwear, he walked into the living room and drooled at the scent of coffee wafting from the kitchenette. Wandering over to wrap his arms around Severus from behind, he enjoyed the shiver he evoked through his body and smoothed his hands over the silk.

“Are you _trying_ to make me lace your coffee with semen?” Severus grumbled, inwardly wishing he could control himself more successfully when Ron touched him.

“It’d be interesting,” Ron gave a snort into his neck and kissed it. “But no, I’ve had my fill for the morning. That reminds me, you need a drink.”  
“I’ll do it when you come back,” Severus dismissed. “It’d be rather cruel to get you aroused again and then send you out into the city with a raging hard-on… who knows what trouble you might meet there?”

 

“There’s that tasty brothel in the coven I thought I’d give a visit,” Ron rolled his eyes at the very suggestion he’d go looking for another partner.

 

There was a loud bang as Severus set down what he had been holding and he whirled round, grabbing Ron tightly.

“How many times, my nature does not accept humour about such a situation?”

“Your “nature” or your jealous side?” Ron blinked.

“They are one and the same,” Severus raised an eyebrow. “As you well know. Do not try me.”

“You know I’m faithful to you,” Ron said with an angry bite to his tone. “You know I would never cheat on you… those two creeps in the coven cornered me and I couldn’t fight them, Sev, you know that…”

 

Severus heaved a sigh and had to acknowledge that Ron was right. His redhead seemed superbly loyal, and the two vampires that had set upon him three months before had outnumbered him and pressed their advantage. Ron had never given any hint that he enjoyed what they had done to him. Severus recalled his scared wide eyes from that night and knew he was being ridiculous.

 

“I know,” he finally said, very quietly. “But I cannot always fight down the natural impulses.”  
“You’re doing brilliantly,” Ron gave him a soft smile. “I know I shouldn’t ask you for more.”

“How do you mean?” Severus stepped away to return to the breakfast preparation he’d begun.

“Well, you’re much more… you’re relaxed,” Ron said carefully. “And you’re very protective of me but you’re getting better at loosening the choke chain…”

“Because you would undoubtedly grow to hate me, now you have found your feet in the city, if I did not,” Severus reasoned. “I am not completely inadaptable.”  
“No, but the first month I could barely breathe… and now it’s comfortable, and I feel sort of… blessed with the opportunity we were given.”  
  
“Even though you almost had to give up your right arm to have it?” Severus sliced open a croissant.

“Even so,” Ron murmured, turning to look out of the window. “I don’t think I could ever go back to life in England now… not now I have you, and my independence.”  
“You mean you did not feel independent in England?”

“God, no. Between my mother and Hermione… my life was being run for me. And I let them do it because I didn’t know how to stop them. But here… I can get up when I want. I could go out and get whatever job I wanted…”  
“As long as you stay out of the burlesque halls, lap dancing clubs and whoring alleys,” Severus interrupted him.

Ron laughed. “I don’t think you’ve got anything to worry about, like anyone would pay to see me wriggle about half dressed.”  
“I’d pay,” Severus threw him a grin. “But I’m lucky enough to get it all for free.”

 

He turned and handed Ron a mug and plate, which the redhead took and sat at the dining table.

 

“So…” Severus tried to think of a way to sensitively put what he wanted to ask. “Are you telling me that if we ever could, you wouldn’t want to return to England?”

Ron chewed on his mouthful, thinking on his answer. “Not to live there,” he said quietly. “And most definitely not without you…”  
“But your family?” Severus joined him at the table.

 

“My family…” Ron sighed. “Look. I’ve just woken up. Do we have to talk about this now?”

“No,” Severus picked up his coffee mug. “You only give me that answer every single time they’re brought up though, regardless of the time of day…”

“I do not,” Ron protested, but Severus just stared at him and Ron slumped in the chair. “Alright, maybe I do. It’s hard to talk about them because I can’t ever see being able to work my two separate lives together.”  
“Two separate lives?” Severus questioned with a frown.

  
“Yeah,” Ron shrugged. “My life with you and my old life with them. Both are bound to be full of trouble and I don’t know how I could cope with that…”

“What troubles do you anticipate with me?”

 

Ron looked at him calculatingly. “Oh, well, for starters, you’re a vampire, and immortal, and I am not. I’m not saying I want to be changed, so don’t start,” he waved a finger when Severus opened his mouth to speak. “But it _will_ be an issue, though probably not until I surpass you in age…”

“Why only then?” Severus swallowed a mouthful of croissant, wishing it was blood.

“Well as you kept on telling me, at some point I’m going to want more, to be like you… and I don’t think you’d ever give me that, would you?”

 

Severus looked at him. “Not now. Maybe when you were older, when you’ve… lived life a little more...”  
“A life with you,” Ron smiled softly.

“Not with your family?”  
“If I can’t have you together, then Sev, I know what I’d choose,” Ron shrugged. “And that’s you.”

 

Severus couldn’t fight the warm feeling those words imparted on his soul, but he had to wonder if Ron truly meant what he said. When faced with leaving his family again, if it came to it, would the redhead manage to succeed?

 

“I know what you’re thinking,” Ron sighed, ripping a chunk of the sweet pastry off and fiddling with it. “That I’m saying all this with no real idea if I could actually do it or not?”

“You’ve got me,” Severus said with a shy smile.

“I didn’t know if I could do this, either,” Ron motioned between them. “You told me I wouldn’t be able to handle you, or living with you…” He dunked the pastry in his coffee and ate it before it could drip all over the place.

 

“Merlin, please don’t do that in public,” Severus watched him commit culinary blasphemy before continuing their conversation. “I know, and I will be honest and admit you’ve never stopped surprising me with your maturity and capability. Not to say you don’t act like a complete brat every now and then.”

“If you’re going to bring up that night at Sacre Couer, there were too many steps,” Ron protested.

“Yes but, if you notice, _I_ did not stamp my foot with frustration and fall over a pigeon during my juvenile tantrum.”

“Well… look, that’s not what we were talking about,” he huffed as Severus smirked.

 

“So would you just like to stay here in Paris? Or we could move on elsewhere?” Severus mused, tapping the mug against his lips as he thought.

“I like it here,” Ron considered aloud. “And I’m getting better with my French… and your friends are here.”  
“Yes, but if you wanted to move on, I would not see them as an obstacle.”

“We have a life here,” Ron said simply. “I don’t want it gone before it has to be.”

 

“Okay,” Severus conceded. “But if you ever feel the need to spread your wings a bit, do not assume that I would say no. You are young; you must be tempted with the idea of travelling?”

“Sort of, sort of not,” Ron shrugged. “Maybe Italy but it’ll be too sunny and hot for you, you’ll be asleep all the time and that’s no fun.”

“Well, after a while blending into a magical community again would be simple. I could brew my old potions and then we could revert to a normal schedule.”

 

“It’d be weird to be out in daylight,” Ron laughed, drinking his coffee. “Fuck, I’m late,” he caught sight of the clock. He got to his feet and stuffed his remaining croissant inside his mouth whole.

 

“I am never sure whether to feel blessed or disgusted by the size of your mouth,” Severus cocked his head to the side with a sultry smile.  
“You sounded pretty blessed about half hour ago,” Ron jumped into his boots and smirked.

“Well, quite,” Severus took another mouthful.

 

“And your cock was bigger than the croissant,” Ron added, grabbing his jacket and watching as Severus spat his mouthful of coffee out ungracefully as he laughed at the crude comment.

“Tut tut,” Ron leant over him, seeing coffee dripping off the refined man’s chin. “And there was me thinking you were so very well mannered… dribbling, Severus?”

 

With a wide smile he ducked and kissed the coffee tainted lips, swiping his tongue against them and gently rubbing his nose to Severus’. “Back later mon amour.”

 

Severus wiped the coffee off his chin with a nauseatingly slushy grin on his face as the flat door closed behind Ron.

 

***

 

“You’re doing very well,” Bridgette grinned at him, closing the cover of the book she was using to tutor him in French. “Much better than when we started.”

“It’s easier now,” Ron took a mouthful of his drink, and swept his blonde fringe out of his eyes.

“How’s Severus?” Bridgette smiled. “Haven’t seen him for a few days. I must confess I love having him around again. I have mentored many but he has always been a favourite.”  
“Because he’s so challenging?” Ron smirked.

“I’m not going to deny that is part of his appeal,” Bridgette laughed and signalled to the waiter for their bill. “But no… his sarcasm is rather amusing and he is amazing at intellectual debating.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Ron shrugged. “I suppose I’m a bit of a disappointment to him there…”

“You seemed to be rather apt at intellectually debating the pros and cons of paralytic stunning spells last week,” she rummaged in her purse for change.

“Nah,” Ron shrugged. “Let me help you with that.” He pulled out his wallet and cursed as it fell out of his hands, and landed open. He bent to get it but a hand beat him there and picked it up.

 

The waiter looked at the identity card which sat in the wallet, carrying a picture of him with red hair and his full name, age and eye colour. They were another invention of the Ministry’s after the war –and the card was tainted with his magical signature, as well as his physical one. He did not comment but it set Ron’s heart pounding as the man handed it back to him with a smile and put the bill down between them, before walking off.

 

“Have you got a ten? I’ve only got a twenty,” Bridgette was still in her purse, not having noticed the way that the waiter had seen Ron’s very magical proof of identification.

“Uh, yeah, sure,” Ron slipped out a ten euro note and set it on the little folder. “It’s probably my turn to pay anyway.”  
“Can’t have you boys running out of funds,” she shook her head. “I am incredibly rich.”  
“And so modest,” Ron threw her a smirk and pushed back his chair, forcing his worry to the back of his mind and the wallet into his pocket. “Fancy a walk along the river? It’s a nice night.”

“No, I’ve got to get back,” she said disappointedly. “We’re going out tonight and I need to get ready. You’ll be okay by yourself, though?”

“’Course,” Ron shrugged and got up. “Same time next week?”  
“As ever,” she rolled her eyes. “You’re a weird one, Ron.”

 

They walked outside and Ron was suddenly surprised when Bridgette pulled him into a friendly embrace. His shock must have registered on his face because when she pulled back, she coloured slightly and launched into an explanation.

“I’m sorry,” she shifted her bag on her shoulder. “That’s just how I say goodbye to my friends and I forgot who I was with for a moment.”  
“You think of me as a friend?” Ron smiled at her, loving the way her cheeks flushed even redder.  
“You’re one of those horrible bastards that loves to see a pretty girl blush, aren’t you?”  
“The effect would be a lot nicer if I didn’t know what you were like on your off days,” Ron winked.

“Are you asking for a slap?” her tinkling laughed danced along the Parisian pavement.

 

Ron just laughed. “Take care, Bridgette.”  
“And you. See you soon.”

 

They parted in opposite directions and Ron shoved his hands in his pocket, enjoying the night air. They weren’t situated far from the river and he turned down one of the alleyways to take him to the water. The little lane was quiet and his footsteps echoed along the cobbled stones, which reminded him of the streets of Magical London. The thought of England made his stomach tense and he sped up, eager to get home to Severus for a night of cuddling on the sofa in front of the television and hopefully the orgasm he’d been denied before he left.

 

That thought made him smile as his prick twitched in his underwear, ever ready for sex where Severus was concerned. Where it had once felt new and awkward to be sexual with the raven haired man, Ron had grown to find it the ultimate source of comfort. A bad mood could be chased away with all manner of sins and he loved each and every one.

 

 _God… that night in the bath… that was fucking amazing…_ He swallowed the sudden thickness in his throat remembering the night that Severus had pounced on him in the middle of a very bubbly and girly candle-lit bath and they had dirtied the bathwater at least five times over.

 

_At least he waited until the next morning to take the piss out of me for being-_

His mental train was abruptly cut off by the sound of loud hurrying footsteps behind him. His shoulders tensed and then he saw someone step out in front of him and he had to work hard to stop in time so that he did not collide with the figure blocking his way. The footsteps behind him ceased and he tried to remain calm, despite the fact it looked like he had been herded into position.

 

“Take what you want,” he said loudly, knowing he had barely anything of consequence for thieves to take, and his wand was concealed where it always was, up the sleeve of his jacket.

 

Severus had decided that they should carry their wands whilst out in the city for protection, even though using them was to be a last resort. That night was the first time Ron had ever even had to consider it.

 

“We don’t want your money,” the voice was low and it chilled Ron’s insides.

 

There was no time to react as the person from behind grabbed him and threw him face first into a shadowed part of the alley, and pressed into him. Ron’s cheek grazed painfully against the rough brick and he gasped as his arm was bent up behind his back. And then, if he wasn’t terrified enough, the man holding him uttered two words which made him nearly vomit with fear then and there.

 

“Finite incantatem.”

 

The tickling on Ron’s neck told him is fake appearance was completely gone and he was himself again in public for the first time since leaving England.

“It’s him,” the other spoke, but as if they didn’t believe their own eyes, Ron felt the back of his jacket and shirt lift up and knew his only other distinguishing feature was on display –his tattoo of the Fire Imp.

 

_Damn and fuck you to hell, Harry, you’re the only fucking person that knew about that. How could you?_

 

“And, of course…” The man grabbed his unbent arm, roughly poked up his sleeve, and dragged Ron’s wand out.

 

“Well fucking hell, we finally caught him,” the man holding Ron breathed. “I can’t believe it.”  


Ron cringed internally at his stupidity in leaving his identity card in the wallet. He thought back to the way the waiter had looked at him and wanted to moan. And then his brain flew into action.

 

_Oh my God, what if they’ve got Severus? He would have been a sitting duck, he might not even have had his wand on him…_

Strength unrivalled blossomed through him with the fear of Severus being hurt whilst he was not there, and Ron managed to buck backwards, dislodging the man’s grip on his arm. He whirled round and kneed the first thing he could make contact with which was, unluckily for the man holding his wand, a crotch. An uttered curse and a stumble was all Ron needed to lunge for his wand, which he then turned on the other man, sending a deft stunning spell. He tumbled to the cobbles and Ron sent the other wizard the same way.

 

Breaths rising in a panicked fashion, he stepped back, thinking on his next move.

 

 _Severus. You have to get to Severus._ Ron instantly raised his wand to prepare for apparition when a nasty thought struck him.

 

 _Severus would probably tell me to run and get as far away as I possibly can…_ The thought was abhorrent to Ron and he chased it away immediately, sickened with himself. _No. If he has left me then I’ll deal with that when it comes._

 

He focussed on the alleyway outside their flat and turned into the spot, praying to Merlin that his magic was strong enough from being pent up for four months to carry him all the way without splinching himself.

 

His feet slapped into the concrete again and he forced his eyes open too early, stumbling into the bricked wall but all he recognised was the horror of the light of the stairwell spilling out into the alley, the door clearly having been blasted off it’s hinges. Not caring whether he was walking into a trap or what he might find in their apartment, Ron threw himself at breakneck speed into climbing the stairs.

 

“Monsieur! Je suis trés, trés désolé!” Claude floated with him up the steps and began babbling in worried French that Ron didn’t have the time to try and decipher as a painful stitch developed in his side.

 

He heard voices from above and gripped his wand as he raced up the last flight of stairs and threw himself into their flat, looking wildly about. There was a blur to his right and he nearly screamed and hexed the body which slammed into him before he recognised Severus’ scent.

“Thank God you’re alright,” the older man breathed and wrapped his arms tightly around him.

“Sev, they’ve-”

“I know,” was the desperately whispered reply. “There was nothing I could do…”

 

“Let go of one another, now,” a hard voice commanded and Ron was glad when Severus completely disobeyed the order. “Look,” it tried again. “I have a warrant for your arrest if you do not co-operate, Snape, and an order to bring him in for questioning.”

“What?” Ron frowned, stepping apart from Severus only to get a better look at their assailant. “What do you mean, you can only arrest him if he doesn’t co-operate?”

 

Ron had assumed that the abduction claim had been filed and that was why they were chasing them. But if they could only arrest Severus if he proved difficult, Ron didn’t understand what was going on.

 

“Believe me, it’s not what I wanted,” the auror snarled. “But the Wizengamot didn’t seem to think an abduction claim stood up with the evidence of your stupidity, Weasley. You left no trace but it was very obvious you’d left willingly.”

“So… he hasn’t been charged with abducting me?” Ron blinked, relief washing through him. Severus would be safe.

“No,” a second voice spoke up, and Ron whirled round to see another auror leaning in the spot which was usually his, where he sipped on his tea before he went to bed and looked at the glittering Tower. “Somehow in all of this, Snape seems to have gotten off scot free. Amazing what being an ex-Death Eater will do for you.”

  
“Shut up,” Ron snarled.

“Threatening me?” the auror laughed. “You’re certainly brave, Weasley, I’ll give you that.”

 

Ron felt a spell wash over his body and turned to look at the other auror again.

“Amazing,” he breathed. “He’s not changed you.”  
“No, I am one hundred percent wizard,” Ron threw him a nasty glare. “Not that it would be any of your damned business if I wasn’t.”  
“Oh, it would most certainly be our business,” the aurors laughed together and Ron bristled.

 

“If you have anything you want to bring with you, then you might as well pack it now. We’ve alerted everyone of your whereabouts, you cannot escape, so do not try. I’m just waiting for my authorisation on the international portkey and then you’re coming back to England with us. Get out of bloody French jurisdiction… bloody idiots, the lot of them. They’ve got a vampire coven living under the city and yet they sit there and do nothing because it keeps them ‘occupied’.”  


Ron’s heart leapt into his mouth that they knew about the coven.

“Oh yes,” the auror said softly. “Where else do you think we found out about you? We have spies.”

“Spies?” Severus asked, and Ron hated how weakened he sounded.

“Well, they came to us willingly…” one of the aurors shrugged with a small mile. “You really should be more careful who you turn down propositions from.”

 

“No!” Severus snarled suddenly and Ron jumped at the upturn in ferocity from the man who had been unnervingly quiet up until that point.

 

Ron was nonplussed, he was still convinced the waiter had snitched on him, but Severus’ face was so angry and the auror had implied the coven had given them away.

“The couple that had you up against the wall,” Severus growled, and strode away to punch an angry fist into the sofa cushions. “Damn and fucking blast, I _knew_ I should have finished them when I had the chance…”

“I distracted you,” Ron said in a hollow voice. “It was me… I… just needed to tell you I loved you.”

 

“Salazar’s balls, Weasley, you just keep rolling out the punches, don’t you?”

“What?” Ron’s head snapped to look at the speaker.

“You told a vampire you loved them? Were you not already bound to him enough?”

“I do love him,” Ron shrugged boldly. “And if you have a problem with that then I suggest you wait outside.”

“How dare you talk to me like that?”  
“You are in my flat,” Ron glared at the man. “You seem to be forgetting that.”  
“Except it isn’t yours, really, is it?”

 

Ron fell silent, sensing the danger he could place Bridgette in if he kept speaking.

 

“No,” the voice grew dangerously soft. “So why don’t you keep your troublemaking mouth shut until we get back to England where I can record everything you say to hand other to the relevant authorities?”  
“What do you mean, the relevant authorities?” Severus demanded, but he did not receive an answer from the auror.

 

There was a red flash in the air and a mouldy looking boot landed on the floor with a thump.

“That’s our portkey, time to go,” the auror near the window announced. “It’ll activate when we touch it. Do you have items to collect?”

“Yes, Severus nodded, and turned to the bedroom. Ron made to follow but found two wands trained on him.

“Do you really think we are _that_ stupid?”

“Hoping,” Ron muttered, and threw his arms across his chest.

 

 

In the bedroom, Severus finally let his hands begin to shake as he grabbed what he could, the rest of their money, his wand from the bedside table and his jacket. There was no need to take anything else. He had a horrible suspicion that they would not _need_ anything else where they were headed. With a deep breath which did nothing for his nerves, he stepped back out into the living room, tucking his hair behind his ears.

“Ready,” he muttered, stepping over beside Ron, who turned away and walked to the window.

  
“Ron?” he called, wondering what on earth the redhead was doing, turning his back on the two wand-drawn men.

“I’m just saying goodbye,” Ron sighed, sweeping his eyes out over the darkened city, the twinkling lights looking as beautiful as they had ever done, but their lustre had been snuffed out for him completely. “I’ve looked at this view every night for four months…”

Unwilling to bare his back to the men, Severus stayed put but wanted nothing more than to grab Ron in his arms and comfort him, an action so very out of character he wondered if they had performed spell work on him without him noticing.

 

_Or maybe that is part of your character now? Four months and Ron’s very emotional… you needed to change for him and you did._

 

“We really need to leave,” the taller auror said, and both Ron and Severus thought they detected a slightly apologetic note in his tone.

“Come on,” Severus held out a hand to Ron. “We’ll… we’ll come back.”

“Not likely,” Ron sighed, but picked up Severus’ hand and gave it a squeeze. “Somehow, Severus… I really, really doubt it.”

 

***

It felt odd to hear people converse in English again after so many weeks of trying hard to decipher every French word. Ron shook his head slightly, feeling dazed. They had already been in the Ministry for an hour and were no closer to discovering the full details of how they’d been tracked or what was going to happen next. In fact, their lack of information was beginning to seriously hack Ron off.

 

“Stop it,” Severus pleaded, as his redheaded partner prowled up and down the room they’d been locked in.

“I can’t help it,” Ron breathed, flinging his hands nervously in front of him to try and shake the nervous tension from his body. “They won’t tell us anything, they won’t let me talk to anybody…”

“Well wearing yourself out will do no good whatsoever,” Severus snapped, his patience beginning to thin.

 

Ron threw him a contemptuous glance but threw himself down on the sofa provided next to Severus, who took up his hand and held it tightly.

“I just don’t get why now… four months,” Ron whispered. “Why didn’t they give up, Severus?”

“It depends what kind of tip off that scum gave them,” he answered in a dark voice. “If they told them we were in the city but no more, then it might have taken them the remaining three months to finally track us down…”

“There was… tonight in the bar, my wallet fell open and the waiter saw my magical identity card,” Ron swallowed. “Do you think he…?”

“It is possible, if the aurors had been asking questions and he remembered the details of your appearance, or a picture.”

“I was such an idiot,” Ron breathed, squeezing his eyes shut. “I should have destroyed it.”  
“The cards cannot be destroyed without magic,” Severus sighed. “And we lived without that. Please, do not beat yourself up.”

 

“Do you believe them?” Ron asked hurriedly. “About the abduction? Do you really think you’re not in danger?”  
“I don’t believe a word they’ve said,” Severus shook his head despondently. “I don’t understand why they wouldn’t have issued the claim. Even if you came willingly, you were still on the run with a vampire and a vampire who was your teacher at that… I should be penalised at every turn and I cannot understand why I am apparently not being so.”

 

“I don’t either,” Ron swallowed, and then leant into Severus’ side. “Everything seemed so perfect this morning.”  
“Too perfect,” Severus agreed and pressed a kiss into Ron’s hair.  
“We should have known,” Ron scoffed lightly, letting his eyes fall down into Severus’ lap.

“Probably,” Severus agreed, bitterness swamping his tone.

“What do you think is going to happen to us?” Ron whispered fearfully.

“I’m trying not to think about it.”

“That bad, huh?”

 

“I think we should come to terms with the fact that this time tomorrow we might not have a relationship,” Severus murmured and Ron sat up properly to look at him.

“What, you think that they’ll separate us?”

 

Severus opened his mouth to answer but was interrupted by a sharp knock on the door which then opened. “Weasley, you’ve got visitors. Shall I show them in?”  
“Do I have a choice?” Ron asked, getting to his feet but leaving his hand behind with Severus.

 

The auror looked at him with an expression that Ron couldn’t quite work out before answering. “You can refuse if you like. Don’t you at least want to know who it is?”

 

Ron thought about saying his refusal, but then if he rejected his visitor he might lose their only chance to find out what the hell was going on.

“I’ll see them,” Ron nodded quickly.  
“Do you want me to get him out of here?” The auror pointed at Severus.

“No, and I’d prefer it if you’d muster the politeness to call my partner by his name, if you don’t mind?” Ron glared pointedly. “After all, manners cost nothing.”

 

 _God, I sounded like Severus then,_ Ron thought.

 

 _Good God, that was almost a perfect imitation of me,_ Severus tried not to laugh.

 

“Your choice,” the auror shrugged, and stepped back out, closing the door behind him which sealed with hefty magic.

 

They still had their wands and it surprised them both they had not been disarmed. But then the room they were being kept in had probably been charmed to deaden any magic within it.

“Who do you think it is?” Severus asked him fervently, and Ron shrugged.

“Could be anyone, could be my dad, I guess-”

 

The door opened mid-flow and there was a hoarse joint cry of “Ron!” and then he was engulfed, by two sets of arms. His hand fell out of Severus’ as the arms tugged him into a dual embrace and Ron tried to fling out to reach for him, but it was no use.

 

Unable to really see, Ron tried to discern from the scents who on earth was mauling him. There was a subtle hint of chocolate chip cookie and that told him that one of them, at least, was Harry –he had mocked his best friend’s girlish taste in hair shampoo enough times to recognise it instantly after so many years of friendship. The other scent was of tea and candle wax.

  
“Dad?” the power seemed to leave Ron’s voice as he stood in the embraces.

“Thank god you’re alive,” one of them said, and then there was a welcome surge of fresh air as both of them stepped back to look at him.

 

Ron instantly felt guilty when we saw how tired both of them looked and just how much greyer and thinner his father’s hair seemed.

“I’m alive,” Ron nodded softly, looking awkwardly between them both.

 

Severus watched the scene as if he were underwater. The way the two men had easily dragged Ron’s hand from his seemed a very clear symbol of what he had always suspected –that the second they came back into his life he would be second rate. Whilst he had expected it, it didn’t stop it from hurting any less.

 

Until Ron stepped to the side and very firmly picked his hand back up.

 

 _Fucking hell._ Severus’ mind exploded with shock at what Ron had done and couldn’t make himself squeeze back when Ron offered him the silent show of support which had become their trademark.

 

“Do you have to?” Harry’s voice cut through the air and Ron coloured instantly, snapping blue eyes onto his friend’s face.

“Yes, Harry, I do have to,” his voice was calm in contrast to the anger in his eyes.

“Harry,” Arthur said quietly, as if begging him to behave.

 

Ron was surprised Harry obeyed –after all, Harry was only a pseudo son and did not have to obey his pseudo father’s orders. But his scrawny, specky best friend fell silent and instead chose to glower at the wall.

 

“I expect you have questions?” Arthur said weightily. “As we have questions for you.”

“What’s going to happen?” Ron asked immediately. “We… take full responsibility for this together, dad…”

“I need to understand,” Arthur looked at his son desperately. “I need to understand what happened and why, before we talk about the future. You owe us that, Ron, for leaving as you did…”

“I had to,” Ron sighed, and sat down next to Severus, leaving the other two standing. “He was going to force me into the bonding and there was no way-”

“Nobody was going to force you into anything,” Harry interrupted, looking furious. “I knew it, Arthur, I _told_ you. Ron, he lied to you!” Harry shoved a finger in Severus’ direction. “Dumbledore’s never said anything about forcing, that’s never been an issue until the ministry got involved.”

 

Ron swallowed and shot a nervous glance at Severus, who had been overcome with such blatant fury Ron knew he would not be able to speak. _Which is probably a bloody good thing._

“No,” Ron shook his head. “Severus has not lied to me.”  
“The official line here is that Dumbledore _suggested_ that you undertake the spell,” Arthur looked wearily between his son and the dark haired man boiling with rage next to him.  
“No, I saw the paper,” Ron frowned. “We saw the copy from the day it hit the headlines. It said forced. And that was exactly what Sev told me.”

“Sev?” Harry exploded again. “Merlin’s fucking balls, Ron, are you right in the head?”  
“I’m fine,” Ron snarled. “And, if you must know, Harry, Severus didn’t even encourage me to run.”  
“But he still went with you,” Arthur pointed out, fixing his eyes on Severus.

“Because I was bound to him by a Protection Lore,” Severus finally spoke aloud, his voice hard and angry. “Or did Albus change that little detail as well?”

 

The swift look between the two men told him that that was indeed the case. “Oh, Albus, you really are a genius…” Severus muttered, shaking his head with disgust. “I understand now. So I’m the villain this piece, the doctored version for the British public? Preying on a schoolboy against his will?”

 

Harry gave a terse nod and continued glaring.

  
“Well, the reason I followed your son,” Severus turned to Arthur, thinking he would much rather waste his breath on someone who didn’t look he wanted to murder him, “Was because I was bound by a Protection Lore. It made me choose to follow Ron when he chose to leave the school and go into hiding and stay with him ever since.”

 

“And you’re still human?” Arthur looked at his son.

“Completely and utterly,” Ron shrugged. “Severus has always been adamant he would never change me and has stuck to that.”  
“But he’s still drunk from you?” Harry burst out angrily. “Still brainwashed you?”

“Shut up,” Ron said forcefully. “Harry, I’ve not been brainwashed at all. I’ve just… t-taken a path which you cannot follow me down.”

 

“Answer me this,” Severus asked abruptly. “If I am the villain, why was an abduction claim not filed?”

“Yes, Arthur, why hasn’t it been filed?” Harry turned an angry red shade and Arthur looked at his son.

“It looked like you went willingly, Ron. That you left the castle with him. So I refrained from registering it. I wrote to you to explain that, but…”

“I burnt your letter,” Ron whispered. “I had to, Dad, it could have said anything… been laced with anything… you understand, don’t you?”

“What happened to Pig?” Arthur winced.

“We don’t talk about that,” Ron said with a shifty look to Severus who had tinged green and looked at the floor.

 

“Not everyone agrees with my decision…” Arthur sighed.

“The aurors that found us mentioned the Wizengamot? They said they ruled against?”  
“That’s not exactly right,” Harry rubbed his eyes beneath his glasses. “They ruled against but said that if your family wanted to, they could file the claim.”  
“And you didn’t…” Ron fought back hot tears.

 

“As I said… it seemed you wanted to leave with him,” Arthur swallowed. “And if you wanted a new life…”

 

Overcome with emotion, Ron couldn’t look anywhere but at his knees. Severus recovered and pressed forth to find out what was happening.

“We’ve been living in Paris since January,” he explained. “I have looked after your son in every way that I could although I will not pretend it hasn’t been hard.”  
“Oh yeah,” Harry laughed. “Really fucking hard, holed up in a flat in Paris doing fuck all whilst the rest of us worry ourselves sick-”

“Harry, if you can’t keep your temper you can wait outside,” Arthur flared up and Ron froze at the anger in his father’s voice, rarely seen but worrying when it emerged.

 

“As you can see, I have not changed your son,” Severus continued. “Because I did not wish to and he did not want me to.”

“I know about your kind,” Harry spat. “I’ve read the books, the real books, not the ministry approved shit. I know just what kind of relationship you’ve forced him into, Snape, and its fucking sick.”

“I wasn’t forced,” Ron raised his voice above Harry’s.

“You should be locked up for what you did,” the venom poured out of the dark-haired boy, and although it was no less than Severus had expected, he still wanted to slap Harry sideways.

“I WASN’T FORCED!” Ron yelled suddenly and leapt to his feet.

 

Severus wasn’t surprised that Harry took a step backwards –there was fury in Ron’s tone that was more than a little bit terrifying.

 

“I wasn’t forced,” Ron repeated, clenching his hands into fists. “I forced myself on _him_. I made the Invitation, I goaded him to the point where he snapped, then it was my blood which drove him insane. And then when he tried to scare me off I was stupid enough to stay and it ended up in the Protection Lore. When you fucked off and left me for Christmas, Harry, who do you think I found comfort in, hmm? In that relationship you think is sordid I’ve found something I didn’t know existed. And then I took off to Paris with him and then d’you want to know what I did Harry?”

  
“Ron, sit down,” Severus reached for his arm but had to stand up to do it. “Now is not the time to get angry, do not say things you don’t mean. You’ve spent four months missing Harry, do not drive him away…” As much as it killed him to say those words, Severus knew they were necessary.

 

But they did not work. Ron took a deep breath but continued on.

  
“And then, ‘holed up’ as you put it, I fell in love. Call me brainwashed if you like, Harry, but I know I am not, and Severus knows I am not, and that’s all that really matters.”

 

Deafening silence followed his outburst and Harry looked like he’d just swallowed a bottle of drain cleaner. Severus nervously moved to stand behind Ron and put a gentle hand on his shoulder.

 

Then Arthur cleared his throat. “No, Ron… I’m afraid it’s not _all_ that matters.”  
“What do you mean?”

 

A dark look passed between their visitors that immediately sent fear shivering up and down Severus’ spine.

 

“What do they plan to do?” he asked seriously.  
“The Ministry is beyond annoyed that this became public, and that they had to do such damage control to contain the truth, as proved by the fact that you had an un-doctored version of the paper, but here they were all destroyed before they were distributed.”  
“Why though?” Ron breathed. “Why all the hush?”

 

“The Ministry wants to keep Dumbledore as Headmaster,” Harry explained in a dead tone. “And had the truth got out about his actions with someone nearly in their twenties, there might have been strong call for his resignation, but they do not want that.”  
“Why? He’s a bloody fruitcake who tried to force me into something which might wreck me!” Ron cried.

“Exactly,” Arthur sighed. “They do not want him free; they want him where they can see him… old wounds run deep. The man is a genius who led us through two wars, but they do not forget his youthful associations to darker magic. This is a Ministry running scared from anything that might challenge their normality, Ron…”

 

“But what about us?” Ron asked. “What was the point of hounding us down?”  
“Doctored or not, your story has been high profile. There has been a surge of anti-dark creature riots in response and the Ministry has to be seen to act.”  
“But he didn’t do anything?” Ron heard the desperation in his voice.

“It’s a very messy situation…” Arthur looked at them worriedly.

 

“He’s pretty much free to go,” Harry snarled, making it very clear what he thought of that fact, just like the aurors had in Paris.

“But why?” Ron frowned. “He’s a vampire... surely he’s the one they should be prosecuting?”  
“Glad to see we’re of the same mind, knew you’d come round eventually,” Harry breathed.

 

“Hypothetically,” Ron growled. “I’m thrilled he’s off the hook… but I’m guessing someone has to pay and that would be me, right?”

 

Arthur looked at his son wanly. “I have been hoping they would never find you. I’ve been told that makes me a terrible father,” the man’s face crumpled slightly. “I hoped they would not find you because I was proud that you’d taken the initiative to run away from such a threat, Ron, to save yourself from that fate.”

“But now… it’s coming for him anyway? Is that what you’re saying, Mr. Weasley?” Severus asked, even though he had always known it would be the way.

 

“They need to be seen to be acting. If they cannot banish you then they need to remedy the cause, and that lies with Ron.”  
“So what… they’ll force the spell on me like Dumbledore was going to?” Ron whispered. “How, how is that fair?”  


Harry let out a low, depressed chuckle. “They’re not going to ‘force’ you as such. They plan to make you the offer of walking into it willingly… and if you refuse them, as they expect, they have a befuddlement potion standing by to force down your throat right before they send a psychiatrist in to assess your mental state, who will then declare you off your rocker and say you have a history of mental health issues, and claim you were never in your right mind and that the spell will be for the benefit of your own health.”

 

Severus couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It was as though his status as a political pawn had drained straight from his body and been leeched into Ron’s, because that was basically all his poor beautiful young man was becoming.

 

“If you had come back turned,” Arthur said quietly, “They would not have been able to do this. You would have counted as a dark creature and therefore different rules would have applied. They had the plan laid out that you simply would have been banished from the country with your funds cut off… “  
“And we could have been together,” Severus’ voice cracked as he spoke, and he turned to hide his emotion from the room, one hand planted firmly over his mouth, holding in the vitriol he wanted to scream at the walls.

 

Ron felt sick that if he had begged Severus to change him then they would have been alright. He licked his dry lips and tried to control his trembling fingers.

“And if he turns me now?” Ron whispered, seeing Severus’ head jerk out of the corner of his eye.

“Then he can be arrested for an attack on Ministry property,” Arthur explained. “And there aren’t very many different sentences for dark creatures.”  
“Banishment, imprisonment or death,” Harry threw in viciously.

“Don’t you dare imply what I know you’re going to,” Ron shot at him, and then turned, pressing his body into Severus’ back and wrapping his arms around him.

 

“Fucking sons of bitches,” he whispered to the dark-haired man, and could see his face screwed up in the torment of their situation.

“You have no choice, Ron… we cannot run this time, refusing will only see you lose your rights after the spell is performed…”

“I know,” Ron breathed, the words bringing the reality crashing down around his ears.

  
“Would you like us to give you a moment?” Arthur asked kindly, and Ron had never felt more grateful to his father, but Severus answered for them.

“No,” he turned around, his face a pale mask of resignation. “Stay. He is your son. And you deserve as much time as I do with him before they ruin his life.”

 

Ron watched as Harry’s face seemed to fall with a strange expression as he heard Severus’ words.

 

“I should get everyone else,” Arthur gave a swift nod. “If you are decided?”

“What other option do I have?” Ron looked at the floor. “I’m not going to be declared insane, dad. I’ve got more bloody balls than that.”

“And that’s why I’m proud you’re my son, and I’m proud you lasted as long as you did,” Arthur stepped forward and embraced him again. “I’ll go, and tell them your decision, they’ll probably send in an official clerk for a signature…”

  
“When will they do it?” Ron frowned.

“Well, it’s the middle of the night and important people need to be notified, I shouldn’t think until lunchtime tomorrow…”  
“What will you do?” Ron turned instantly to Severus. “You… I can’t ask you to watch it. And you’ll be asleep, anyway…”  
“No I won’t,” Severus shook his head. “We are in the Ministry. They have the same sort of spells as… well. As we have seen others protected.”

“Ohhhh,” Ron immediately understood. “I get you.”

 

“And I can make sure they hold off? I’ll bring the family back in the morning? You must be tired…”

“Well, I’ve kind of been living by the night,” Ron gave Severus a small smile. “Otherwise life would have been really lonely…”

“Still,” Arthur calculated. “I think it’s best for me to return in the morning to give your mother some time…”  
“To prepare herself for probably having a braindead son? Yeah, probably best,” Ron shrugged, chewing on his lip.

 

“How are you so calm?” Harry asked, his voice cracking a little as he spoke, for the first time since entering the room he did not sound angry. “Why aren’t you more upset? He looks worse than you do,” he nodded towards Severus, who really was very pale.

 

“I always figured if they found me it was what they’d do, though I have to confess I thought it would be Dumbledore that did it, not the Ministry… I’m just… at the minute I’m just relieved that Severus will be safe when this is all over. That he can go and be safe.”

 

 _… In Paris with Bridgette, where he belongs._ Ron finished the sentence mentally but looked at Severus, hoping that he would understand. A hurting yet dead stare was Ron’s confirmation.

 

“Dad,” Ron said suddenly. “You need to make sure that whoever comes here understands I’m not leaving Severus’ side until the very last minute and I won’t waste my breath arguing my connection with him to anybody.” Ron reached across and slid his hand into Severus’.

 

“I understand,” Arthur nodded. “I’ll see you again in the morning, Ron… Severus,” he inclined his head slightly and turned from the room.

 

Harry remained behind. “You and your stupid big mouth,” he breathed, looking desperately at Ron all of a sudden. “Why, why couldn’t you have just gone out with Hermione? Then we wouldn’t be losing you, Ron…”  


Ron didn’t comment on Harry’s surety that the spell would be detrimental to him. Instead he just said, “There are loads of different ways to lose someone Harry. And to be honest, I think yours is the easiest.”  
“What do you mean?” Harry demanded.

“Well… I would have lost myself in a relationship with her, and now I will lose Severus, and he will lose me... I know it’s hard to understand Harry, and I don’t even want you to try really… but we’re so close now and giving this up,” he motioned between himself and Severus. “You say you read the books… so you know vampires are monogamous and loyal… think of what losing me is going to do to him? You, on the other hand, can just put me in a home and forget about me if the spell hurts me badly enough… he cannot ever forget me, not even an Obliviation would work...”

 

“I would _never_ do that,” Harry’s voice trembled on the emphasis. “No matter what you’ve done… you’re still…”

 

Severus turned away; the burgeoning moment of friendship was not one he needed to see. He sank back down on the sofa and closed his eyes, pressing his hands over his ears as his chin tilted downwards into his chest.

 

Ron saw him melt away and swallowed hard, fighting the tremble out of his limbs.

  
“I should go,” Harry murmured.

“Thanks for coming,” Ron looked at him beatenly.

“I missed you,” he replied simply.

 

Ron chewed into his lip, not knowing what to say or do next. But then a thought struck him.

“The aurors that cornered me… they knew about my tattoo, Harry, they knew where to look to distinguish it was me.”

 

Colour flamed into Harry’s face and he looked at the floor. “Yeah, mate, that was me… I’m sorry. Right at the beginning, when we were all so shocked… I thought it would help. I just wanted you back. Looking back, I wouldn’t tell them again…”

 

Ron knew that was the closest to a confirmation of approval as he was ever going to get from Harry, when Severus was involved in the equation.

“It wasn’t about spiting you,” Ron said quietly. “This just… happened. It wasn’t about-”

“I know,” Harry alleviated the tension.

 

Awkward silence fell between them that Ron had never really felt before –the silence of missing words between two friends who had been through hell and back together. He thought back on what he’d told Harry earlier, about choosing a path which he could not follow him down and realised just how very apt that description was. _Nobody would fucking want to follow me now._

“I really should go,” Harry took a step backwards, emotion clouding his voice. “You should…” He gave a gesture towards Severus’ form on the couch and made a pained face at Ron.

“Harry?” Ron stepped forward.

“Yeah?”

 

Lost for words, Ron did the only thing feasible, and that was wrapping his arms around his best friend, except that it was not a friendly embrace at all. Harry was shorter than him so it wasn’t exactly the same as what he had grown used to sharing with Severus, but the amount of contact, the placing of his hands and the tightness with which he held were very close and to his surprise Harry returned it all with the same intensity.

 

“I’ll-”

“Don’t,” Ron muttered. “Don’t say anything, Harry.”

 

Stumbling backwards out of Ron’s arms, Harry nodded and turned to the door. He looked around once more, his green eyes lingering over the dark haired man behind Ron who had not moved a muscle during their conversation. Ron wondered if he was going to say anything and didn’t know which outcome to hope for.

 

The best one happened, even though it hurt. Harry’s eyes obviously shuttered and then he pulled open the door and was gone. The door, as if adding insult to injury, also disappeared, and they were alone.

 

A shaky breath was all that Ron managed as his legs gave way and he landed in a heap on the floor. Severus still did not move, but then Ron could see he had his eyes closed, so maybe the man had not noticed.

 

His mind was blank and Ron didn’t know whether that was the correct reaction or not. Should his life be flashing in front of his eyes, a hideous montage of the memories he would likely not have by that time the next day? Or should he be bursting with energy which he wanted to expend? Or should he feel angry, distraught, wanting to rip his prosecutors limb from limb? Or was the general feeling of numbness, emptiness and indifference just right?

 

 _Idiot. There probably isn’t a textbook reaction to ‘hey, dude, sorry about this but we’re going to fuck up your magical core good and proper’…_ He snorted at his own badly placed humour and swallowed the burn away that it caused in his throat.

 

The wall and floor were cold beneath his body and he shivered, it took him flying back to the first night he’d ever donated to Severus, locked in the walls of Hogwarts.

 

_This is all Fred and George’s fault. Just one drink… my fucking arse. And I’ll bet they’re reading the riot act right now about it being Severus… they will never admit it’s their entire fault…_

Ron looked at the wall opposite with a slight smile, and wondered what the hell he was smiling about. He had nothing _to_ smile about.

 

_And it’s not really their fault… you didn’t have to invite him and trap him into this mess._

 

The hurt swiftly manifested and he felt, oddly, better for its presence –it felt a more normal way of coping with what was happening. He couldn’t believe he’d been in Paris just three hours before, waking up next to Severus purring like a cat.

 

_Weird bloody man. Everyone knows that dogs are far superior…_

 

But the thought of not hearing that sound again, of not cuddling up into the warmth of that man brought the reality a lot closer to the surface. He suddenly found himself questioning the fact that he was sat moping alone on the floor, not talking to the man he loved, when the next day their relationship would be in tatters.

 

As much as he wanted to get up, to go to Severus, he found himself drained on the floor, looking aimlessly at the wall opposite.

 

He did not know that Severus had begun to watch him, and unclamped his hands from his ears and was listening to the only sound in the room, which was Ron’s breathing. Severus saw his haphazardly placed limbs and knew Ron had simply fallen where he stood. He also knew that he should move, get him up off the floor and keep him safe on the warm sofa, but the function in his legs seemed to have deserted him.

 

Feeling defunct, he took a deep breath of his own. His oral comforting skills had never been up to standard and his body was the only thing he could use, yet it seemed that had failed him at the most crucial time.

 

 _One of us has to move. One of us has to initiate what will essentially be the last night we spend together…_ Channelling strength reserves he didn’t know existed Severus pushed himself off the sofa and didn’t even wobble. Ron did not look up at him, but stared at the opposite wall with a slightly dazed smile on his face.

 

 _I think they might have managed to send him mad without the age of a potion, the poor bastard._ Severus walked over and stopped in front of Ron’s form, and then with a quick swooping motion, reached for his hands and pulled the redhead off the floor.

 

Ron was up before he knew it and he swayed in Severus’ grip, forcing his eyes to look into the onyx irises instead of at the wall, because he could not put it off forever.

“Bonjour mon amour,” he tried softly, testing out his vocal chords, which might have been severed for all he knew, for all the effort it took him to force out the foreign words.

“All that effort learning your French verbs for nothing,” Severus looked at him sadly.

“I know, I think I might be more annoyed about that than anything else,” Ron gave a disbelieving scoff and roll of his eyes.

  
“Come on,” Severus led him over to the sofa and sat down on it.

 

Ron instantly reached to kick off his boots and then curled up into Severus’ side, as he was so well practiced at doing. But he did not hide his face; he looked at the man with wide eyes and tried to drink in every single line.

 

“I wouldn’t bother,” Severus gave him a wry smile. “There’s no point committing me to memory.”

“I’ll bloody look if I want to,” Ron said grumpily, and made a point of leaning closer and resting his forehead against Severus’ so they really were eye to eye. “And anyway, don’t you have anything you want to remember?”  
“I want to remember everything,” Severus murmured, and looked away into the bare room.

“Then come on,” Ron frowned.

“I already have everything I need to know.”

 

Ron thought on that for a while and swallowed nervously, wondering if Severus would permit his next question. “What do you want to remember about me, Severus?”

“It is _not_ your attempt at carbonara, that much is for certain.”  
“Yeah, that was bloody awful…”

“You must remind me to buy Bridgette a new saucepan,” Severus told him, momentarily forgetting quite why they were where they were. “Oh. Strange how we have adapted so easily to living with one another, Ron… in such a short space of time you’ve simply become everything.”

“Going to get all soppy on me now?” Ron raised an eyebrow, and was surprised that hearing such things from Severus made his stomach squirm, as though something was quintessentially wrong in the world’s make-up.

 

“No,” Severus shook his head. “I am just commenting on how well we did.”

“We were fucking great,” Ron rolled his eyes dramatically. “And I enjoyed every single second.”

“I enjoyed evenings like earlier tonight,” Severus’ mouth twitched. “When we both woke up and thought we were winning.”  
“That’s what happens when you get cocky,” Ron shrugged. “We should have known.”

“That is pessimism worthy of myself,” Severus flicked him a surprised glance. “I, on the other hand, believe we would have been miserable had we lived in such a way. I am glad we had the happiness we did.”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong,” Ron’s voice dropped to a whisper. “I love you… and I wouldn’t change anything, and I would give everything except my chance for more time with you to live it over again.”

 

They met in a soft kiss and Ron wondered why he still wasn’t totally distraught. He licked against Severus’ tongue and sank a hand into the inky black hair, massaging the scalp he connected with. Passion injected into his veins like he was so used to it doing and his body responded to Severus with its usual fiery heat.

 

They broke apart but stayed close; each could feel the breath of the other brushing over the skin of their face.

 

“Where will you go?” Ron asked quietly, picking up a few strands of dark hair and smoothing it between his thumb and forefinger. “Back to Paris?”  
“No,” Severus looked at the hair Ron was holding. “No, I’ll go elsewhere. If I can live quietly here, I’ll probably stay in this country, to be honest.”

“This is so fucking odd,” Ron breathed. “We’re sitting here talking about the end of our relationship like it’s nothing more than throwing away an old paper.”  
“Except we both know it is far more than that. And that this day might always have come. Maybe we have just made our peace with it subconsciously?”

“It would have been nice if it could have told me,” Ron muttered. “I feel like a right twat.”

 

“I must admit I am surprised at your calm.”

“I think I learned it from you,” Ron gave him a small smile and continued. “Something to be said for your reserved nature…”  
“I am still capable of anger, though, and hurt. All the worst emotions are within me as much as they ever were.”  
“And those good ones you like to pretend don’t exist,” Ron added casually. “Love and caring…”

“I am neither of those things for anybody but you. And even then I fall short of your expectations regularly.”

 

“Not as regularly as you think,” Ron played with the hair again, wondering when Severus would get annoyed and tell him to stop. “You wouldn’t be you if you were anything different…”  
“Well that was a load of twaddle. I wouldn’t be me if I were anything different? God, you’ve not changed at all, I take it back.”

 

Ron snorted his laughter and dropped the hair. “I really thought you would have killed me trapped in that flat together.”  
“I’m thrilled to have impressed.”  
“Actually, no, I’ve never been more shocked that you didn’t kill me that first night you drank from me… I’m obnoxious when I’m pissed.”  
“I know,” Severus’ eyes glittered in the lights of the room.

 

Ron looked around them, then at the missing door. “So I take it we’ve been left alone for the night?”

“I presume so,” Severus sighed. “They’re probably drafting paperwork and alerting the right people…”

“I hate how this is how my name’ll be remembered,” Ron said with a dramatic sigh. “As the idiot forced into a spell which ruined him.”  
“Or, you might find the romantics in this world take up your name as a new martyred hero…” Severus countered. “After all, I suppose your situation is rather befitting of such a status.” His nose wrinkled as he said it.

  
“And you don’t approve?” Ron laughed.

“Unequivocally not,” Severus said with a bored flick of his eyes. “I’ve never had time for hero worship. I prefer you much more as you are. As you have always been.”

“And what’s that?” Ron asked teasingly, trying to goad Severus into some praise.

“A terrible flirt, an awful cook, a worse singer and badly behaved, of course,” Severus didn’t look at him when he said it and hoped his voice didn’t give away the sudden burning in his throat.

 

“I am all those things,” Ron conceded. “But as for badly behaved, I like to think it just kept your mind working through the long, lonely nights of our desperate seclusion… hey, you’re right, you know… this will make a brilliant book!”

“How much shall I sell the rights for?” Severus tried to sound calculative but failed when emotion finally cracked into his voice.

 

Ron shifted so that he sat in Severus’ lap.

“Get off, that makes me feel like a pervert,” Severus muttered, and gave him a gentle shove, but Ron did not move.  
“Bit late for that,” he whispered, and lifted Severus’ chin with his fingers. “It’s a bit late for any regrets, any wishes… we did what we did and I don’t regret a second of it.”

 

Severus nearly said what was on his mind. _I wish I’d fucking changed you._

 

“I don’t regret it either,” he shook his head instead. “And I do love you, very much, despite our short time together.”

“More than some people get in a lifetime, right?” Ron tried to sound positive.

“Yes, it’s just rather typical that having thought I would be in that group for the rest of my life, I suddenly found myself shifted to the other to find myself adrift again so shortly…”

“I think that’s what I find shittiest about this whole thing,” Ron told him.

“Even though even after tomorrow you won’t know anything of the last nineteen years?”

 

Ron nodded. “What the fuck will I care, Severus, I’ll be without but that only matters _now._ I’m not the one that’s truly tortured in that case, am I? I’ll still have breath and a clear memory… it’s everybody else that suffers. And that includes you and I hate myself for it.”  


Severus looked at him with assessing eyes, thinking of the way Ron had been so blasé about being trapped with a vampire from the off in November, and then sighed. “Do not hate yourself because of what you do to me, I would say that the pleasure you’ve given me over the last four months eclipses what will come.”  
“You say that now,” Ron blinked away a few rebellious tears. “But tomorrow night when you’re alone again? When you get up and remember I’m gone, that it wasn’t some nasty dream? Then how will you feel?”  
  
“I’m trying not to dwell on that,” Severus murmured.

“Well, I already am,” Ron swallowed. “I don’t want you to be alone. Please promise me you’ll go and find Bridgette. I know what the books imply Severus, those upheavals in your life, in your emotions –they can tempt back the Depression. And that tells me just how fucking bad it was.”

“You are as astute as ever,” Severus sighed, not wishing to digress into the subject of his past.

“Tell me,” Ron pleaded. “What does it matter? Tomorrow night I might not know what planet I’m on, let alone the deepest darkest corners of your mind… where I’ve been trying to claw for five very long months, if you think about our time at Hogwarts as well as Paris… Please…”

“There is very little to tell you have not already guessed,” Severus said darkly. “Nothing that you should taint your ears with, anyway.”  


“Don’t give me that bollocks,” Ron flared up, and Severus was reminded with the fiery nature he had fought with so many times in their month at Hogwarts. It was a stark souvenir of how Ron had changed during their time in Paris. Maybe there was another in how Severus chose to answer him.

 

“I think the worst part,” he said softly, focussing his eyes on the neckline of the top Ron wore, “Was that I could not control it. You know me, you know how I work and how I feel completely adrift if I do not have control over my life, even down to the tiniest of tasks.”  
“Yes, I do vaguely remember you folding tea towels,” Ron looked up at the ceiling and smiled at the memory.

“The depression was incontrollable. My mind produced thoughts I never consciously knew I could think, longing for what Bridgette would not let me have…”  
“Which I imagine was wandering into the sunniest place you could find and giving up?” Ron sighed.

“Yes.”

“Thank fuck for Bridgette…”

 

“At the time I did not conclude the same as you. She was nothing but an irritation in those early days… she exerted the same kind of firmness as she does with me now. Waking up and finding myself restrained was a real low point.”

“Why did she do that?” Ron gently traced his fingers up the side of Severus’ neck, feeling that, as horrible as the words he was hearing were, they at least distracted him from the broom crash of his own broken life.

“Apparently gouging my nails through my skin is not the only thing I have ever tried to do in my sleep,” he sighed. “But yes… you know what happens when I’m down, and you yourself to that extent –we are very similar in the way we brood and deal with depression.”  


“You mean we drag up bad memories and look through them to make it all worse?” Ron snorted.

“Quite. So as well as dealing with the depression and my change, I found myself battling against memories from my childhood and my own schooldays, and Voldemort the first time round… and they were not keepsakes that I wished to peruse…”

“But the depression wouldn’t let you stop…”

 

Severus just nodded and did not speak any more. Ron leant forward and kissed him on the forehead. “I hope for your sake this doesn’t bring it back.”

“Would you think any less of me if I said I was reluctant to go back to Bridgette and let nature take its course?” Severus whispered.

“I wouldn’t think less of you,” Ron answered carefully. “But I would be distraught to think you would.”

 

“I’m not sure which option would be worse for you to accept,” Severus closed his eyes.

“Life goes on, Severus, you will… well, I know you won’t forget me, what you are won’t let that happen, but still… there is a very small chance that I could go through the spell and come out normal.”  
“A million to one, nobody has ever been normal,” Severus dismissed him.

“Still. I’m going to ask you this –and I never ask for much, really. Promise me you’ll wait and see what I’m like before you do anything stupid? And if you, or anybody else, thinks there’s a chance… stick around. Stick around and teach me all over again.”

 

Severus nodded but didn’t know if he’d be able to stick to his agreement. The idea of being confronted with a Ron who wouldn’t tell him he was being pedantic, sarcastic and a bastard, but a bastard he loved, sent chills down his spine.

 

“How did we end up like this?” He groaned and brought his hands up to rub violently over his face, pressing his fingers into his shielded eyeballs. “How did any of this happen?”  
“Because I was a dickhead,” Ron whispered. “And you know I’m sorry.”

“I do not need your apologies now,” Severus muttered bitterly. “As I did not need them at the beginning.”  
“But you never said they didn’t help,” Ron chastised softly.

 

A stalemate met, they fell into silence, Ron still perched on Severus’ lap and the dark-haired man’s face covered completely by his hands. He could have been crying his sorrow for all Ron knew, but it was lucky he knew Severus better than that.

 

“So I guess that’s it,” Ron exhaled. “I’m surprised they left us together.”  
“I think your father might have had something to do with that,” Severus finally emerged from his hands.

“Mm. I have him to thank for your freedom it seems.”  
“It isn’t freedom,” Severus replied dourly. “Look. We should probably try and get some rest. Tomorrow will be worse on you if you do not sleep.”

“You think I’m going to waste this time with you sleeping?” Ron asked incredulously. “No fucking way, Severus.”  
“Well what do you propose we do?” Severus asked him, one eyebrow rising.

“I know exactly what I’m going to do,” Ron got off his lap and stood up, looking down at his partner.

 

“Which is?” Severus remained seated, hoping none of Ron’s plans involved rash actions.

 

“Get you to fuck me one last time.”

 

 _And he expects me to be able to perform like this? Locked up like animals facing a hideous day?_ “You know me less than I would have hoped,” Severus sighed glumly. “And anyway, we do not have any-”

“Lube?” Ron snorted, and Severus jumped as something landed in his lap, which was a very small tube.

“Where… why…?” Severus didn’t bother to form a full sentence with the exasperation flooding his mind.

“It was just in my pocket from ages ago. I think it might have been through the washing machine, I’m not sure.”

“Well, I am sorry disappoint, but the answer is no,” Severus looked up at him.

 

“I knew you’d say that,” Ron sagged and fell back down on the sofa, leaning forward to hang his head with closed eyes. “I can’t catch a fucking break tonight, it seems.”

Severus did not answer him and stayed silent, the tube still in his lap.

 

“I know we’re in the middle of the Ministry,” Ron whispered sideways. “And I know this goes against everything you are… but please?”

“No,” Severus swallowed, surprised he wasn’t even finding it hard to resist.

“Don’t make me play the ‘don’t you love me at all?’ card, Severus. I don’t want to have to stoop so low…”  
“But you would?” Severus’ mouth hitched up in a smile.  
“Would it work?”

 

Severus sighed and reached for him, massaging light circles on his upper back. “Probably not.”  
“Alright then, I’ll play this card instead…”

 

Ron turned and swung his leg over Severus’ so that he straddled him completely, very much evocative of the way they had first kissed and moved against one another the previous November. He kissed the man hotly and sank his fingers into his hair, holding his head in place. Ron felt hands come up and rest on his hips but they did not push him away. Taking advantage of that fact, he worked his tongue in deeper, caressing against every part of Severus’ mouth that he could reach, and groaned loudly and appreciatively. He could feel the erection building in Severus’ crotch and grinned.

 

“You’re a swine,” Severus panted as Ron finally released him.

“And don’t you forget it when you’re all sad,” Ron grinned. “Now. My card.”  
“You mean giving me a thorough tongue-fucking like that wasn’t your final playing card?”

 

Ron shook his head and lowered his lips to Severus’ ear, knowing that his next words would probably see him thrown onto the ground and fucked roughly, like they generally always did.

“No, my card, Severus,” he made sure his hot breath washed straight into the man’s ear canal. “My card is to ask you to let _me_ fuck _you_ for the first and last time.”

 

He braced himself to fall and was shocked when he remained not only upright, but in the same position, sinfully pressed into Severus’ crotch and his lips at his ear.

 

Severus felt like he was burning alive with the fire from those words. Never before had he been so utterly torn with indecision. Never before had he ever let Ron push him that far, and certainly nobody before the redhead. Nobody had even made him consider the possibility, not even other vampires.

 

He wasn’t quite sure what he was doing when he breathed the words, “Do it.”

“W-what?” Ron’s voice had finally taken on a tremor, and had he been coherent Severus would have commented on how, as ever, it took the notion of him doing something sexually experimental to make Ron terrified.

 

Lust took over and unlike before, Severus willingly gave himself to it. He pressed his hands firmly into Ron’s hips and held him tight before thrusting upward slightly and crushing their groins together.

“You heard,” he breathed. “Don’t make me say it again.”

 

Ron was frozen in place, heart rapidly accelerating to the point where he thought it might conk out under the strain.

“But I thought you couldn’t…”

“I would like to try… if it won’t be with you, then it will never be with anybody. And you deserve to have a chance, Ron.”

“But I don’t want to hurt you,” the words blurted out and sounded pathetic and childish, but Ron couldn’t help his worry.

 

“Either take this chance now or I will never offer it again,” Severus screwed his eyes up at the harsh words. “You have been hounding me for months for your chance to touch me and do what you want and now I’m offering it.”

“But I didn’t want it like this, because you felt like you…”  
“I am not offering because I feel I owe you anything. I offer because it is what you want…”  
“And what about you?”

“I will only know if I want it if we try.”  
“Not good enough, Severus, I’m sorry,” Ron breathed, and pressed his face into the man’s neck, screaming inwardly at what he was turning down.

 

Severus blinked in confusion at Ron’s refusal, and felt his hand stroke at the man’s back comfortingly. “If I were to say I wanted you?”

“I wouldn’t believe you,” Ron’s voice was muffled.

“What could I do to show you the truth?”

 

Ron fell silent, thinking through all the times he’d ever dreamt about having free reign with the Slytherin’s body, every time he’d wanked imagining the feel of his cock stuffed tightly in the thin body… _Why the fuck am I turning this down?_

“I can’t do it and then leave you,” he whispered suddenly, saying the words as he thought them. “That would be…”

“A lasting memory I would like to have.”

 

Ron pulled back and looked at him, chest heaving with emotion. “Are you… only if you promise me…” No sentence he tried to form would end correctly, so Ron gave up.

Severus kissed him and gave a slight nod.

 

Things flowed easily then. Ron replaced his hands on either side of Severus’ head, and kissed him profoundly; making gentle moaning noises which were nothing other than genuine, and unusually Severus returned them. His legs were tingling from Ron’s weight pressing down on him, but he paid the sensation no heed.

 

“How do you want me to do this?” Ron breathed, never fully pulling away, leaving them joined at the lips. He knew for this to work he had to hand as much control as possible over to Severus.

 

Tacking their lips together before speaking, Severus watched Ron with glittering eyes. _How he really has come to understand and know me…_ “We do not have the means to be face to face, though that is what I would prefer…”  
“Me too,” Ron whispered and kissed him again. “Your face is something I never thought I’d love to look at in a million years, Sev… but I don’t want to live without it.”

“We will do better if we remain silent, I think,” Severus winced at the way Ron’s words lacerated through his chest like a knife. “Don’t think about what we stand to lose.”  
“Just what we have?”  
“Yes.”

 

Resolutely taking a deep breath, Ron thought he would try something. His wand was up his sleeve and he pulled it out. He pointed it at his shoes at the floor and changed the laces yellow.

“Is really now the time for outlandish fashion choices?” Severus asked.

“I can do magic,” Ron rolled his eyes. “So…”

 

It felt good to finally repay Severus with the same sort of crafty work which he’d been subject to for five months. He spelled away all of the man’s clothes to the floor and left him sitting naked.

“If someone comes in…” Severus immediately squirmed beneath Ron’s pinning position. “They’ll cop much more of an eyeful in a few minutes than just you naked,” Ron kissed him, and spelled his own clothes. But then he reached behind Severus’ head and pulled the large blanket which rested on the back and draped it around his shoulders, leaning forward so that the fabric obscured all of Severus’ body bar his shins and feet.

 

“Thank you,” he whispered shyly.

 

 _Shy?! Since when have you ever been shy, Severus?_ The voice in his head sounded remarkably like Bridgette then and he jerked.

“Okay?” Ron asked quietly.

“As much as I can be,” Severus snorted.

“Are you actually scared?” Ron imitated him.

“Weren’t you the first time?”  
“Are you telling me that I am-”

“No talking rule,” Severus interrupted him quickly and looked away, a dull blush colouring his cheeks.

 

“Guess we don’t need that little tube after all,” Ron handed Severus his wand. “I think that you should…you should do that. I don’t want to fuck this up and hurt you.”

 

Another wave of appreciation rolled over Severus as he held his wand dumbly for a moment, before flicking it downwards and uttering the spell to ensure he was suitably prepared. Ron watched with curious eyes as Severus twitched and gasped beneath him, saw how his nipples hardened in response to the sensations and how his cock swelled completely to jut proudly between them. But it was the way the thin mouth curled up into a sensual variety of smirk which fascinated Ron the most, the way the upper lip twitched with desire when Severus gasped.

 

Since the first time they had slept together, Ron had not been treated to the delight of watching Severus touch himself. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the spectacle as he saw the man wrap one hand around his erection and stroke it lethargically, seemingly having cast off all inhibition to give Ron what he had always wanted.

 

But Ron knocked the hand away and took over, gently massaging with his thumb as he moved up and down, dragging the pliable skin to create firm tension for his lover.

 

“That’s good,” Severus hissed, letting his head fall back onto the sofa with his eyes closed, revelling in the sensation of being stretched and massaged both internally and externally.

 

Growing hard himself, Ron reached for the tube, thinking it might as well not be totally useless, and awkwardly worked off the cap, never stilling his other hand on Severus’ cock. He let out his own tiny gasp as the cool gel graced his hot skin as he squeezed, and Severus was suddenly looking at him.  
“Let me, you’ve done it for me enough times…”

 

Ron instantly pressed the tube into his hand and enjoyed the sensation of being slathered in the substance, feeling Severus’ hand glide over his already soft skin with ease. He groaned his approval and thrust forward into the nimble hand, keeping his own grip tight on Severus’ shaft. “Fuck I love you, Severus…”

 

“And now you can finally show me how much,” Severus whispered with indecently low eyelids and parted lips in response to Ron’s touch in his groin.

“I hope you knew before this, though…” Ron smiled slightly, eyes rolling back in his head.

“Of course…”

 

Ron shifted off then and allowed Severus to creep forwards slightly. He pointed his wand at one of his removed boots and managed to shakily transfigure it into a pillow.

 

 _Why on earth did they leave us with magic?_ He picked it up and turned back to Severus, who was watching him with nervous eyes which looked so out of place on his usually austere and powerful face. But then he lay down on his back stretching out with feline grace and lifted his hips up for Ron to place the pillow beneath them, which he did. _Suppose we could only kill each other and then what would they care? A problem solved for them. Fucking bastards._

He climbed back onto the sofa, making sure the blanket was still draped over his shoulders. But he wasn’t going to waste his opportunity completely. He ran his index finger against his cock and coated it a little, before reaching forward and pressing without warning into his partner.

 

The hiss was music to his ears but the clenched fists and tight jaw ruined the moment. It was very obvious that Severus was fighting hard to control his dominate nature and as Ron pushed further, amazed by the heat, he opened his mouth to ask.

“Don’t you dare pull out,” the words were a dangerous growl and then he saw why.

 

Leaking pre-come onto his flat stomach, Severus was rock hard and straining, just as much as Ron had ever hoped he would be. It was clear that whilst he was fighting his nature, Severus enjoyed the touch.

“I’ve dreamt of this,” he whispered. “I have always wished I could let you do this.”  


Ron didn’t speak but slid backwards, the passage had already been stretched by the spell so he didn’t have to work, but he wanted Severus to understand the sensation which always sent him screaming. He pushed in with two and tentatively groped inwards, searching out the part which, on his own body, could produce stars in front of his eyes and that Severus knew how to play like an old, cherished musical instrument.

 

Cursing his inexperience, Ron concentrated harder, enjoying every gasp and moan which fell out of Severus’ lips, drinking them all in and committing them to memory, even though there was little point. The words ‘this is criminal’ floated into his mind rankling with the injustice of their situation as Severus jerked and cried out in what anybody else might have interpreted as pain. But knowing him as he did, Ron managed a smile and gently flexed his fingers again, producing the same sexual approval.

 

“E-enough,” Severus choked, not knowing how he had managed to survive the immense pleasure Ron’s fingers had produced scraping over his prostate. “Fuck me.”

 

Ron obeyed and pushed apart Severus’ legs, which then rose slightly and he just knew as soon as he was inside they would wrap around his waist in the way he had fantasised about. Just quite how much could ride on one single moment, Ron had never been able to understand, but he felt like the ability to breathe and function was riding on that one.

 

He didn’t waste time on entering slowly. It was blatant Severus wanted him fast and he wasn’t going to taunt the man when it was obviously a major ordeal for him to lie there and submit. But the tight heat was something he had not been prepared for; he suddenly realised how very different it was to be on the top end of their sexual encounters, and what Severus meant about the power.

 

Gasping beneath him, Severus looked the perfect portrait of desire, throat exposed, hair about his face, eyes closed and lips parted. Even his hands had unclenched. Ron slid forwards a little more, groaning at the sensation.

 

And then everything seemed to burst into life again. Severus reached up and grabbed him, pulling him into a heated, panting kiss and Ron couldn’t get their air in his lungs to survive. Legs snapped around his waist and feet locked behind his backside, trapping his prick in the burning heat.

 

“Move,” the whispered command came and Ron felt nothing other than the desire to comply, though he saw stars of his own when he did.

 

Moving back and forth within Severus felt better than Ron could ever have thought. Being fucked by Ron was better than anything Severus had ever dreamed to imagine. For a moment they moved together but could only gasp dazedly, getting used to the sensations.

“I need to…” Severus breathed.

“What?” Ron assumed he meant climax and reached for his erection, but Severus growled and grabbed his hair.

“Need to touch, occupy my hands…” Severus told him, kissing him again and groaning as his body was plundered with every gentle thrust of Ron’s hips. “Oh fuck… so good… you’re so good…”

 

Ron closed his eyes and concentrated on trying to build a rhythm, though he kept losing it when Severus clenched around him, making him cry out to the room in rapture. “Stop it,” he pleaded, “Let me do this properly…”

“This _is_ properly,” Severus growled. “I want you to come in me.”

“I will,” Ron protested breathlessly, his hands finding Severus’ shoulders and gripping there, grunting as he slid deeper than he thought his cock could ever be buried in another person.

 

If their positions had been reversed, Severus would have been keeping up a steady stream of filth into Ron’s ear, licking at it as he did so. With a swallow Ron leant forward and kissed the shell, rocking his hips back and forth to keep up the motion as he spoke.

“I love having my cock in you.”

There was a groan and a hissed, “Fuck!”

 

Ron could feel a hard, trapped erection poking into his belly as he leant forward and he took Severus’ earlobe in between his teeth, nipping gently and nearly coming when Severus let out the loudest cry yet.

 

 _His neck. His neck is going to make him come undone._ The thought popped into Ron’s mind like someone had flicked a light switch there, and all of his memories flew back to the first night in the Room of Requirement, before Ron had lost too much blood and nearly died. It was his kisses and nips at Severus’ neck that had goaded him into that lesson. But now it would serve as the final piece of their puzzle.

 

“I love you,” Ron whispered, and then ducked his neck to place a sucking kiss just below Severus’ jawline, sinking his teeth into the skin.

 

Feeling those teeth grazing there sent Severus into a state of frenzy. He gripped Ron tightly and growled, his instincts kicking in and he wanted to be free. But then the slender hips snapped forward with more force and he was lost in the motion, and his cock rubbed hard against Ron’s stretched stomach, foreskin sliding about with pre-come anointing their creamy skin.

 

How he knew that, when he could not see it, Severus did not know. But it felt divine imagining the sight. Ron had moved, biting down his throat with gaining pressure, sucking hard. Severus bucked up to meet his next thrust and groaned when his prostate was hit.

“More,” he rasped, and Ron repeated the action over and over until he was gasping out a continuous approval. “Fuck yes, more,” he breathed urgently and Ron somehow sped up the pace, crashing hard into the spot.

 

Ron watched as Severus unravelled in his arms, his face red and sweaty, eyes closed, and how his nipples were hard and how very prominent his erection was, squashed between them. He reached down between their sweating bodies and gripped it tightly, milking the shaft as Severus had done so many times to bring him off.

“That’s it,” he whispered softly up, “Come for me…”

 

Being guided like an imbecile should have infuriated Severus beyond reason but instead the words poured into his mind and made him gurgle an approval, wanting nothing more than to burst his seed all over their bodies. He reached up for Ron’s head and guided him down for a kiss, and the increased pressure on his cock did it.

 

Ron gasped as the muscles around his prick clenched and gripped him tightly; he pulled back but Severus trapped him into the kiss, which only made it better as Ron emptied out into the tight passage, at the same time as Severus let out a desperate cry against his lips and lost control of his cock.

 

“Oh fuck,” he breathed with all pretence of dignity gone. “Ohohohohhhhhhhohhhhh shit yes! Ron…”

 

His hips were still thrusting up with need as he tingled, feeling the hot come on his stomach, squelching into Ron’s younger body.

 

Ron managed to still his hips and threw his hands up to caress Severus’ face, ready to soothe away any emotions which threatened to hurt his lover. But Severus merely trembled and breathed, not opening his eyes and Ron remained inside him.

 

They shared a kiss and murmured their love to one another, but still neither moved. Ron had no idea what to say other than his love, and Severus didn’t want to hear anything more. But he still had something to say of his own.

 

“That was… perfect,” he whispered, making sure he was close to Ron’s own lips, and then kissed them.


	14. Epilogue

**R:**

_Severus is beautiful when he sleeps. He’d kill me for saying that, I’m sure. But lying here, looking down at him, his hair all mussed over his face like that… it’s a sight I’ve loved to wake up to for four months. For four months this man was my everything. No matter what happened, if we argued or laughed, he was there when I went to sleep and still there when I woke up._

_And now I lie here awake and watch him breathe his way through our last hours together and he looks peaceful, like the first time I told him I loved him. That’s why I’ve just let him sleep. His face is usually so harsh, so world weary, to see him so vulnerable makes me smile. I swear he only looks like that because he knows I’m here, watching over us._

_Of course on my own in the quiet I’ve now panicked and lost control of my emotions. I was glad he did not wake up when I was crying, because he was probably really proud of me earlier for being so calm._

_Not that Severus can preach about being the calmest man in the world. I distinctly recognise anger as one of the prevalent emotions in our relationship and how the little vein in his temple begins to tick irrationally when his blood pressure rises._

_I have spent the time he’s been asleep crying and thinking back over the last five months. It is impossible to choose a favourite memory –how can you do that? How can anyone sit down and pick out a favourite moment they would love to hold on to?_

_  
The closest I can come to it is one night last month walking by the fountains in Place de la Concorde, where I saw that woman be proposed to the day he murdered Pig (which he had nightmares about for weeks and developed a highly amusing fear of the city’s birds because of, though he would just pass off his random ducking as trying to avoid them crapping on him. I always knew the truth). Anyway, the fountain was flowing and all lit up and it was great to look at._

_And Severus just turned to me, raised his eyebrow and said “I’m not asking you to marry me no matter how hard you make eyes at this poncy over-the-top water feature.”_

_I nearly fell in the bloody fountain laughing. In moments like that he’s so unlike himself its unreal, but **that** is as much as the real Severus as the snark and snarling, the humour is. I decided to scare the hell out of him by falling down on one knee –it worked, the look on his face was the kind that cameras are made for. I barely got the word ‘will’ out of my mouth before he turned and stalked off, muttering about over-emotional idiots, but I could still hear him laughing._

_I don’t suppose anybody here would believe me if I told them about the moments like that, when we were just normal people living together in the middle of the Paris. They wouldn’t believe me he could be so feeling and warm. I hardly believed it myself. He was certainly more than I ever imagined he would be._

_I don’t want to leave him._

***

Ron jumped as he caught movement in the corner of his eye and the door bled back into view. Luckily he had spelled all of their clothes back on and they were both clean, but Severus was sprawled in his sleep. The door opened once it had fully materialised and an auror stepped through, opening their mouth to speak. Ron immediately raised a finger to his lips and got up, careful not to nudge the light sleeper from his sleep.

 

“Your family are here,” the woman said quietly, looking at Severus asleep on the sofa. “And everything is prepared for…” She didn’t quite look him in the eye as she trailed off.

“Okay,” Ron swallowed. “How?”  
“He can be there if he wants to be. I am not sure that I could be.”

“Will I be able to come back before it happens?” Ron wrapped his arms around himself, suddenly cold. “After I’ve seen them?”  
“No, I don’t think so… you should say…” she broke off and looked away, but Ron didn’t miss the moisture in her eyes.

 

_Maybe he’s right. There’s going to be some slushy novel about this somewhere along the line. Fred and George will have a bloody field day._

“So I should wake him up,” Ron whispered.

 

Faced with it, tears drew in his eyes but he blinked them away.

 

_Maybe it would be kinder just to disappear… he has told me time and time again he’s not for sentimentality and maybe I should spare him the agony…_

That thought in his mind Ron walked over and kissed the raven hair he was so used to. He reached out to caress it, wishing there was a way to guarantee he would remember what the silk felt like beneath his fingertips. He had never been so choked. Before he could stop it, a tear he hadn’t noticed gathering was falling and dripped down onto the wrinkle-free skin of Severus’ forehead.

 

And then those black onyx eyes were open and looking at him, widening as they took in Ron’s standing form, the auror waiting by the door.

 

Severus took in a deep breath of horror that he had fallen asleep and wasted the precious time with Ron.

“Why didn’t you wake me up?” he croaked.

Ron snorted and shook his head, a few tears flying off his face as he did so. “You needed… I needed to see you… happy before…”

 

“Don’t you dare cry now,” Severus whispered. “Please.”

Ron nodded futilely and stood up straight. Then he reached for his jacket, not that he needed it.

 

“Are you going to…” He didn’t need to finish his question.

 

Severus gave him a curt nod and got to his feet. His body was sore from their coupling the night before but he ignored it, knowing the aches would seem like precious memories soon enough.

 

“Remember you promised me to stick around before you ran,” Ron whispered.

“I remember,” Severus nodded.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

 

***

 

**S:**

_The only thing I know is that I have nothing material to remind me of him. He’s just closed the door on everything we’ve made for ourselves and now I will never have him again. He will live with his family and be so very different to what I know and I have nothing. I am sure the things in the flat will have long gone by the time I can get there to sort through them._

_The door is still in the wall. They wouldn’t let me be present whilst he talked to his family, though he pleaded. I am not scared of them not returning for me. Part of me doesn’t even want to see; only I feel that I owe it to him to do so. I am meant to be his protector and I have to be there, even if that bond will be broken._

_How did I end up like this? I keep asking myself that question, over and over. The sofa which seemed so comfortable last night because he was here is suddenly hard and impersonal and feels northing like consolation at all. If I have ever known that at all before him._

_I will wait, as I promised him. I do not break my promises. I will protect him until everything is gone. With the Invitation reneged my Protection is futile, and he’ll be free._

***

**R:**

 

_It feels so odd to have someone point their wand at me and not even have the inclination to draw my own and save myself. One of the Ministry officials is looking at me like I’m getting everything I deserve. He is not the one holding the wand, though. The one holding the wand looks bloody ill. I’m not surprised. My mum is green, but I’m purposefully not looking at any of them._

_And I’m not raking my eyes around the room for a tall, thin dark-haired man who I had to crack my own heart apart to leave. If I do that I will lose this control I’ve managed to drag out of my arse. I don’t want to do that. I want the book to say I went down stoically, of course._

_Is that selfish? Probably. I’m selfish, that much is obvious. If I was selfless I would never have done this to Severus. But being selfish gave me love and I won’t regret that, especially as now it’s pretty clear nobody’s going to want to touch me with a ten foot barge pole._

_The wizard is telling me what I have to say, and I’m trying to concentrate but my mind just won’t stop wandering and my eyes keep trying to search him out, I have to look at the floor before I find him. Finding him would hurt more than anything so far. I almost hope he isn’t here._

_Fuck, the guy wants to start and I don’t know what to say or do. I snap my eyes up and try to speak that I’m not ready, but then, of course, as my shit fucking luck would have it, I’ve found the pale face and dark eyes I didn’t want to see._

_The flash of light drowns him out from my vision and I really have no idea what to say. It doesn’t matter, though. There’s a beautiful thought in my brain and I cling to it. I don’t want this._

***

 

The light flashed and plenty of people averted their eyes, not wanting to look. And that was how nobody noticed that the body in the light fell and hit the ground. But when the realisation hit the room was rent first with a worried murmur and then a scared, cried name, and only then was there movement towards the stationary redheaded figure lying on the ground.

 

***

**S:**

 

_I have seen many people die. Seeing people die was a part of my job. Killing some of them was, too. I never took any pleasure in it. There is a horror in me which plagues my mind in the darkness recalling the moment the light leaves their eyes. But now I realise how much easier it is to watch the nameless fall over someone that you love._

_As soon as he hit the floor I left the room, feeling the bonds between us sever with his death. Nobody stopped me, nobody even noticed me leaving. I don’t know what he did, but it was obviously something –the spell was not designed to kill. And yet he was very clearly dead in front of us all. And he almost seemed to hold my gaze as he fell down._

_I walk to the nearest Floo, my feet carrying me faster than I knew they could without running. The last time I ran it was to carry the news of his fate to him and I will not repeat it and sully his memory now._

_Emotions are flying through my body. Hurt, loss, love, grieving… being a vampire makes all of them so much worse than they would be for a human. I do not know how I will live with that._

_After five months I do not know how to live without him._

_I stop when I draw level with the Floo, thinking of the last time I used one, when we escaped._

_It seems nothing existed before him, which is ridiculous and I am sure I would be sneering at myself if this were any other time. But it is not, and he is gone completely. Now I will not even catch a glimpse of his beautiful face in the streets. He wouldn’t have known me but **I** would have known him, and it would have made all the difference. But now even that has evaporated into the ether._

_I am truly alone once more._

_I am still looking at the Floo, trying to decide upon my destination._

_And yet there is no real contest. Bridgette will hunt me out if I do not go to her, yet she will stop me from joining him as I am tempted to. Sunshine is everywhere, it would not be hard to find. But this is not me. I am not a man who does such a thing. I am not so emotional._

_Or, I wasn’t._

_The flames turn green, and I step into them._

**_-fin-_ **


End file.
